The main focus of this podcast episode revolves around the concept of grace, particularly as it pertains to the believer's relationship with God and the responsibilities that come with it. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding grace as both the desire and power to fulfill God's calling in their lives. They reflect on their new role as an assistant pastor, urging the congregation to actively participate and contribute to the mission of sharing the gospel in their community. The speaker highlights that this endeavor is not a solitary effort but requires collective engagement from everyone involved. Furthermore, they draw from Romans chapter five to illustrate how grace justifies believers and provides peace with God, encouraging listeners to recognize the transformative power of grace in their lives and to rely on it amidst trials and tribulations. A heartfelt address unfolds as the speaker expresses gratitude for the audience's presence and support, particularly in light of assuming new responsibilities as an assistant pastor. He emphasizes the collective nature of their mission, urging everyone to actively participate in serving their community and spreading the gospel. The speaker highlights the necessity of collaboration, encouraging individuals to identify areas where they can contribute, whether through existing commitments or new initiatives. He underscores the profound importance of grace, drawing from Romans chapter five, where the Apostle Paul articulates the benefits of God’s grace in the life of believers. This grace not only provides salvation but also empowers Christians to fulfill their God-given purpose. The speaker passionately conveys the idea that grace instills both the desire and the power to accomplish God’s will, prompting listeners to reflect on their own callings and the transformative nature of grace in their lives.

Takeaways:

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of grace in achieving God's purpose, highlighting that it is not a solitary effort but requires community involvement.
• In Romans chapter five, the speaker discusses how justification by faith brings peace with God, establishing a new relationship and standing before Him.
• The speaker shares a personal story illustrating how trials can lead to growth and a deeper understanding of dependence on God's grace.
• A key point is made about the necessity of grace for both salvation and daily living, underscoring that believers must rely on God's power and desire to fulfill His calling.
• The discussion on tribulations reveals how they can produce patience, experience, and hope, which are vital for a believer's maturity in faith.
• Finally, the speaker urges listeners to actively seek their place in service to God, stressing the need for a surrendered life to fully experience His grace.

Well, good evening.

Y' all sounded good tonight.

Thank you for being here in your place and if you would open your Bibles to Roman Romans chapter number five.

Romans chapter number five.

We will begin there.

And just for a moment, I just want to share with you my heart for just a second.

Many of you have come up to me and congratulated me, so I want to thank you for that.

And this is a privilege and a lot to handle.

And so I'm going to ask that you pray for me.

Pray for me in this new position has taken over as for the time being for the assistant pastor position.

And I just want you to know that this is not a one man show, okay?

It's not a two man show or a three man show.

This is all hands on deck.

We need you.

We need you to find a place, find a gap and fill it.

We need you to see something and jump right in with a solution.

And so I'm going to ask you to help us, to help us accomplish the things that God has already told us that he wants us to do.

It's to reach Haslett, Texas.

It's to, to share the gospel, to get the gospel around the world.

We have a job to do.

And I'm just going to ask you to find a place.

If you're already involved in other areas, can you do something else?

If you're not involved in something, can you find a place to serve?

And this is how we are going to get through this.

It is by the grace of God.

And by the way, I just want to say some of you have been very, very nice.

I just want you to know I have no money to give you.

You come up with compliments, I have no money to give you.

But anything good that you see in me, it is a direct result of the grace of God.

Okay?

And I want you to know that.

And that has led me to this passage here in Roman 5, Romans, chapter 5 is Paul is explaining the benefits of the grace of God in your life and in the church's life and how the grace of God can affect and help and enable us to accomplish the things that God has called us to do.

Right?

God has called you to do something right.

You know that you've been told your whole life or as long as you've been in church that God has a plan for your life, for your life.

Do you know that?

Are you doing it?

Are you doing what God has called you while you are breathing God's air?

Are you doing the work that he's called you to do so tonight.

Paul.

We're going to start off with.

Let's read a few verses here.

We'll read through 1 through 5 and then we'll pray and we'll begin.

The Bible says Romans, chapter 5, verse 1.

It says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also.

By faith.

I'm sorry.

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace.

This grace.

It says.

It says wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.

Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience and experience hope.

And the hope and hope maketh not, maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Let's pray.

Lord, I need you tonight.

I ask that you would hide me behind the cross, Lord.

Fill my mind with, Lord, what I've studied and what you want me to share tonight.

Lord, I pray that you prepare our hearts to hear exactly what you have for us, Lord.

I pray that you would deal with us individually and as a whole, Lord.

Accomplish that which we need to do, Lord.

Help us to see the things from your vantage point, Lord, so we could do more clearly and better the things that you've called us to.

Lord, I've asked this in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right, so grace.

I love definitions of biblical terms.

And trying to understand the matter of grace is we don't have time tonight to go over everything that grace, what is accomplished by grace and what is grace.

So we'll hit some of the high points.

And so the definition that you probably have heard is Christ riches.

God's riches at Christ's expense.

Right?

And then if you know Brother Stewart, Brother Stewart would say that grace is unmerited favor even unto enablement.

Even unto enablement.

Now I'll tell you my.

I like.

That's a very good one.

These are all very good, but one that I have written in my Bible about what grace is.

Two words.

Grace is desire and power.

Desire and power.

Grace, the grace of God on your life will give you the desire to do what God has called you and I to do.

Then the power is God enables us to do that which he's called us to.

So for tonight I'm going to use that.

That grace is the desire and the power to do the will of God.

So what we need in any day, in any year, at any time is you and I need grace to accomplish the Things that God has called us to, right?

We need the grace of God.

Paul describes it, look at in verse two, it says, by whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of glory, of the glory of God.

So just a little bit of context, you know this, but as a reminder, Paul was in Corinth at the time and he was writing to the church at Rome.

And you can read about it in Acts 18.

Paul had never personally been to Rome at this point of his ministry and he was wanting to go to spread the gospel at Rome.

He wanted Rome to be the central place of the gospel.

You say why?

Well, I think because you've heard it, that all roads lead to Rome.

What if the gospels there you can get the gospel to every place in the world from Rome because every road leads to Rome, right?

So that was, I believe where Paul thought process came from.

And Paul had a deep burning desire to spread the gospel to the point to where it wasn't just, wasn't just sympathy, right?

It wasn't just this desire, but he had a desire that had feet on it.

It started to do things.

And his desire was to preach the gospel and to share and spread the gospel.

So what he did is he started writing the book of Romans and he is giving a comprehensive explanation of the Gospel and the effects of the gospel.

And through verse, through chapters one through four and so on, he has began to explain the inner workings of the gospel.

When I was younger, my grandfather was in a really bad car accident.

He broke his neck and he was paralyzed.

And so I grew up sitting.

I was a five year old little boy.

I'd climb up on his lap in his wheelchair.

We would watch the morning news and Wheel of Fortune or whatever was on afterwards.

And I would take his razor and I would shave his beard with it.

Why?

Because I wanted to take the razor apart and put it back together.

That was just something I like to do.

I like to take it apart.

Most of the things I took apart never got put back together.

But this razor I could.

And when I would sit upon my grandfather's lap, he would begin to tell me about the glories of heaven and about how one day he's going to get a new body and that he's going to be able to race me and that he wants to race when we get to heaven.

I thought well that'll be great.

I want to get to heaven.

How can I get there?

He said, well, there's a problem.

Said grandpa, tell me the Problem?

What's the problem?

He said there can't be any sin in heaven.

Well, as a five year old little boy, I didn't understand it.

So later on, probably three months after I actually got to the point, in my mom's bedroom, I said, I'm ready to be saved.

And on the corner of her bed, she opened her Bible and shared with me the gospel.

And it's changed my life.

Right?

We're saved by grace.

It's not by works of righteousness which we have done.

It's according to his mercy that he saved us for.

By grace are you saved through faith?

Right?

So there's a saving grace is what I'm getting at is that you and I, if you're saved tonight, you did not get saved based on the merits that you have done, your good works, your bad works.

No, it's based on the character and nature of God that He saved you.

That grace is what flows from God towards man.

It's the goodness of everything good in your life, everything remotely good that you can think of is grace.

I mean, think about it.

You're saved by grace.

Well, the Bible says that we are to live by grace as well, and we're also to grow by grace.

And so Paul starts to give this some context and that's what I pray that we can look at for just a short time.

So look at verse one again.

It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the first, first point is that grace brings peace with God, right?

That's salvation.

We are saved by grace.

The Bible here is using the word justified.

The word justified.

You've heard this many, many times.

But for the sake of review, it's good to hear it again.

Why?

Because truth never changes.

And this is truth that you and I need to withstand the things that God has for us.

Because this is where you're going to go back to when the wind starts blowing and the flood waters start rising and the storm clouds start brewing.

You're going to need to come back to the point where you put your faith and trust in Christ, because that is the grounding point for the Christian.

Look what it says.

It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.

There is now unity between you and God.

You and I cannot open enough doors.

We can't give all the money.

You can't join multiple churches, which that's not impossible anyway.

But you, you can't do enough things to obtain God's favor.

You need to come to the saving knowledge, the Only way to come to the saving knowledge of Christ is by grace.

It's by understanding your need for the Savior.

It's when you start to understand that your very nature, the things that come out of you impure, they are.

They are.

Actually, the Bible says, look in verse 10 says, it calls us enemies.

Look at verse 10, it says, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

So it's not by works of righteousness.

This matter of justification is the act of God declaring a sinner righteous.

Justification doesn't just mean forgiveness, which, yes, forgiveness took place when you got saved.

God has forgiven you of your sin.

But let me remind you that there is no sin that can go unpunished.

All sin must be paid for at the school.

Okay?

We have excused and unexcused absences, right?

So if you have a doctor's appointment, you can get an excused absence.

There's never a point where God can excuse your sin.

All sin must be paid for.

So what God did while he justified you, when God restored your relationship and brought you into a good standing with God, a right standing, he didn't just forgive your sins.

He is now crediting to your account the righteousness of God.

You and I, this is a good deal by the way.

You come to God with your sin, he will exchange it for his righteousness.

You come to God and admit that you're wrong, that your thoughts are impure, and that everything about you is contrary to God and his nature.

And God, who is rich in mercy, will say, I will receive you because the exact way that you are, and I will forgive you of your sins.

And better yet, I will give you and credit to your account, my own righteousness.

So, by the way, you and I are not saved because we say a prayer.

We're not saved because we join the church.

We're saved because Christ has fulfilled the law on your behalf, that there was a man named Jesus who lived his life without sin.

Perfect, pure and spotless.

Never thought a bad thought, never said a bad thing.

You know, I've said this before, but if he got a spanking when he was a little boy, his mom was wrong because he did nothing wrong.

And so what did God do?

God took that sinless account and he took it to the cross, took it to the cross.

And there he willingly laid down his life, the innocent for the guilty.

And that is what Paul is saying.

You have to have the foundational understanding of justification or the rest of this passage doesn't make sense.

Look what it says.

If we don't properly understand that we have been placed into a new standing with God, then verse three is a little hard to understand.

Verse four, it's tough.

Look what it says.

Look at verse three.

It says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations.

Excuse me, Paul.

I'm sorry, can you say that again?

What are you talking about?

Are you talking about glorying in your problems?

In your trials and your sufferings and that someone let you down?

That someone talk ill about you?

That someone wants to do you or your family harm?

And you are now talking about glorying in this?

Paul, are you okay?

Do you understand what you're saying?

He says, oh, yeah.

He said, because I understand what justification is.

And you and I, when we can make sense out of this world and out of the things that we have to go through, which, by the way, man that is born a woman is few days and full of troubles.

These people driving out here on 156 are dealing with the same things you are.

They have the same problems you and I have.

They're let down, they're disappointed, they're frustrated or whatever the case may be.

They're dealing with the same things.

But we.

The Bible says here, it says, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope.

And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you.

So first we get peace with God.

This act of peace is this justification that you and I have been made righteous in the sight of God, that we've been credited for all the things that God has done in this life for you.

So that means if we were to take.

If we were to take your life and put it into video form and display it tonight for everyone to see.

Don't worry, we're not going to.

Some of you are squirming a little bit.

Makes me uncomfortable.

I don't want you to know that.

But do you know what would happen if we did that tonight?

If this was God's view of your life?

We take my son, Brendan.

There's some things that he's done that he's not proud of.

He would tell you, but I remember the day when he accepted Christ as his savior.

So now if we were to play his video up here, do you know what it would say, what it would show?

It would show a man who is 33 and a half years old.

Who lived a perfect life, who never sinned in thought, word or deed.

Because the blood of Christ has been shed for you and I.

We have been justified.

God can no longer see your sin through his blood.

Everything that you have done has been paid for.

It's been accounted for.

And God says, I'll take that deal every day.

If a sinner comes to me with his sin, I will exchange it for my righteousness.

I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

By the way, that's the God we serve.

Aren't you glad that God is good?

Are you convinced solely that God is good and that the things that happen to you are good?

Even the disappointments?

God?

Are you sure?

Well, when given proper context.

Look what it says in verse two.

It says, by whom we have received access by, by faith into this grace.

Look at the next phrase wherein we stand.

Where are you tonight?

Are you standing in the light?

In the view that you've been justified before the supreme judge of the universe?

That now you will not have to give an account for your sin?

That your sin has been paid for to the point to where not only you won't get the punishment, but now you can receive all the blessings of God.

You and I want the blessings of God so bad in our lives.

We pray for them, we plead for them.

We're happy to share with the world and our friends that God has blessed us in different ways.

Sometimes that overshadows the point of who you are.

The point of who I am.

I've sinned against a holy and a righteous God.

It's amazing to me, as I think about through the Old Testament, of how God appeared to man.

And you think of Isaiah's vision.

And when Isaiah saw the throne room of God, he said, woe is me, for I am undone.

For I'm a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

That response was, oh, no.

He bowed down before God, which I think was, of course, appropriate.

Then you get to the New Testament and the Bible says to come boldly before the throne of grace.

Why?

Because God has imparted his nature upon you.

God has given you the things that you and I need to live out the life that we need that he's called us to.

So this grace, this grace has accomplished justification.

It's accomplished a new standing before God.

But are you still standing there?

You see, the Christian life, I believe, no doubt, is difficult.

Brother Weatherby would say impossible.

He would say the Christian Life is impossible to live by yourself.

You and I cannot live this Christian life.

This life is impossible to which God has called you and I to live without the Holy Spirit of God's work.

So I want you to look down at verse five.

Verse five says, it says, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you.

Okay?

So keep that in mind that we're getting to the Spirit filled life.

So before we get there, we'll make one more step back.

I want you to look through this for a second.

Look through Romans 5.

I want you to look at verse 9, okay?

Verse 9 says much more.

Then look at verse 10, halfway through it says much more.

Look at verse 15 midway through it says much more.

17, Halfway through, much more.

Verse 20, all the way at the end, much more.

Paul is taking and he is king.

Comparing Adam in the Garden of Eden where Adam had perfect fellowship with God.

Paul is saying that you and I, who has been justified by the finished work of the cross, by the resurrecting in the ascended Christ, we have it better than Adam did in the Garden of Eden that it's better to live right here in Romans 5 than in the Garden of Eden.

Do you believe that?

Do you know the difference between the two?

Adam could sin and fall.

He did not have the blood of Christ covering him now upon salvation.

Now salvation was imparted after the fall.

Of course.

Yes.

Adam got saved the same way you and I did.

He was only looking forward to the coming of Christ, to the promised Messiah, to God coming out and fixing this.

Adam got saved by grace, through faith, looking forward to the coming Messiah.

He believed God and it was counted unto him righteousness.

So was Abraham.

But can you imagine, just for a moment, walking in the Garden of Eden with God in the cool of the day, perfect fellowship with the Creator, doing exactly what God has called you to do, fulfilling God's will completely and then falling.

You know what I believe?

That it truly is better to live in Romans 5 than in the Garden of Eden.

Because now when you and I fall, it's been paid for.

You do not ever have to give an account for your sin before God.

You have been justified now by being justified.

When we go through the trials of this life, when we're dealing with struggles and heartaches and, and the things that make life tough, we deal with it.

We could spend the rest of our time going around the room with only a handful of us explaining the hardship that we have had the Loss or the pain or the struggle, the trials that we've had to endure, the decisions that were very, very hard to make, that we're not taken lightly.

But here in verse 2, where it says wherein we stand.

The point that I'm trying to make is that you cannot make sense of your trials without the foundational understanding of justification.

Your trials mean nothing if you.

If they have not worked you to the place to where you realize your need for salvation.

Or maybe you're saved.

I believe most of us in here tonight would profess Christ as their savior.

You're saved and man, things are good.

And then all of a sudden they're not.

Life happens.

Trials come.

I can tell you.

I can tell you one time I got a call at 4am saying that my daughter was about to be delivered with an emergency delivery.

My daughter Emily was very sick when she was born.

She went through.

She had a blood disorder and went through a process called a cordiocentesis.

A cordiocentesis is a blood transfusion while the baby is in the mother's womb.

Very bizarre.

I can't even.

When I say a needle this big, I mean, the needle might have been this big.

It was huge.

And I had sit there with my wife as they are guiding the ultrasound camera deal and the needle and trying to hit the umbilical cord just right to give little Emily a blood transfusion because she was on the verge of heart failure.

And I got a call.

My wife, they decided to keep her.

Her levels.

They were.

It's amazing medicine, the advancements of what we have, the equipment that they have.

They were able to measure an artery in the brain, the velocity of the blood flowing through that artery to see if she was anemic or not.

And so they were monitoring that blood vessel in her brain and they said it's flowing pretty fast, which means that the viscosity is not thick enough of what it should be.

So her blood is thinning and we need to take her now.

So I rushed to the hospital, came in and they were ready.

It was full steam ahead.

It was happening.

There was no questions.

It was change and get in there and here we go.

And.

There's something about a dad not being able to do anything for his kids.

I couldn't do anything.

I felt hopeless.

I said, God, save my little girl, do anything.

I need this little girl.

Help me help her.

I said, God, I don't know what to do.

How do I make sense of this?

This little girl is struggling to survive and I can't give her what she needs.

I felt like in a sense of failure.

I didn't know how to.

How to help my little girl during that process.

Emily spent six weeks in icu.

In ICU with my wife.

They gave my wife a room on the opposite end of the hospital, in the empty room to stay there.

My wife stayed there the whole time.

I had the other three kids and we all survived, by the way.

We had cereal and toast.

No, that's not a joke.

We had cereal and toast.

But for six weeks, my wife would get up after having surgery and walk, I think, close to half a mile from one end of the hospital to the other end to feed Jake every three hours or four hours.

That was a difficult time.

I was saved.

I knew that God saved me.

I knew that God loved me.

I knew that he had called me.

In fact, that was the point to where I had as a family.

We had already surrendered and moved to Texas to come to attend Norris, to go to Bible school.

I said, God, I'm trying to do what you want me to do.

What are you doing?

This is going to keep me from getting to them to what you called me.

It doesn't make sense, God.

There's times in our life where our life does not make sense unless we view it from standing on the place of justification, standing on our renewed relationship with Christ, that now we have access to the Father at any time that we need to.

You know what God taught me through that?

How much I needed Him, Taught me that dependence is key.

And God had to take me to the end of myself, to where I realized I cannot do this, but God can.

Look, what he says here, it says, and hope maketh us not ashamed.

Verse 5.

Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us as a church.

We can sit here and we can say, you know what?

We need a better.

We need better programs.

And if we had Brother King, better bulletins and.

And if we had all the things that we need, then this would all be better and we had better organization and all this thing.

I'm telling you that right now, God is not looking for a better plan or a better process.

Ian Bound says, God is looking for better men while the church is looking for better methods.

So men tonight, ladies too, but men.

Are you fully surrendered to the will of God, to your life, for your life?

Are you being controlled by the Holy Spirit?

Of God.

Have you yielded yourself to the point to where you say, there is nothing I can do but to surrender my all to the Savior?

And that is how you can make verse three make sense.

Not only so, but we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulations worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope.

After going through a trial, you come out of it better.

I've told you before, I've grown more in the valley than I ever have on the mountain.

We want to live on the mountaintop.

We want a life with no problems.

We want a life where everything is just perfect and we know exactly what to expect.

It's scheduled.

Nope.

Hey, nope.

It's not time for that yet.

You got 30 more minutes.

No, but see, is that a life of dependence?

You see, grace goes this far.

This is the grace that you and I need to live out the life that we've He.

We've been called to.

And by the way, we've all.

If you're saved tonight, you've been called to do something.

And I would ask you to search your heart tonight to ask God, am I completely surrendered?

I'm preaching to myself up here.

I just thought I'd share it with you.

God has put me in a place that I cannot do this.

I can't physically, emotionally, spiritually.

This is.

This is tough.

But the grace of God will enable us.

God uses the Holy Spirit of God as his divine enabler.

And if you and I want the grace that we need to accomplish the things that God has called us to, it is only by a surrendered life.

It is only by completely, completely relying on Christ.

You will be reminded, and I will be reminded constantly of my failures.

And I go back to the cross and Christ says, hey, I paid for that, too.

I paid for that, too.

Tonight, I want you to.

I want you to think about your hardest day.

Think about your biggest struggle.

Maybe you were young.

Maybe you were older.

Maybe it was recent.

Maybe it was years ago.

I want you to think back to that time.

What did God teach you through that?

Did you come out better or worse?

Sometimes I want to know what's going to happen.

I really want to know.

Like, Lord, just tell me what's going to happen.

What should I do?

Where should I go?

He says, if I did, you wouldn't depend on me.

Through that hard time that you're thinking about, did you grow closer to the Lord?

Did God put you in a position where you realized there was nothing you could do?

I am convinced that God is in the business of bringing men to the end of themselves.

What does that better than a trial?

Trials and tribulations have a way of reprioritizing your life.

Have a way of examining the things that shouldn't be there or should be there.

I would encourage you tonight to be fully surrendered to the will of God.

Don't be overwhelmed at the things you don't know.

Just know that you are resting with peace with God.

Your relationship with God is settled.

That word stand means established.

Means that your feet are firm in who and what he is.

And the person and work of Christ.

It's done.

And what you and I need is grace to accomplish his will.

So tonight, as you stand with me to your feet, as the piano begins to pray.

Not pray, play.

I do ask that you would be in an attitude of prayer.

The altars will be opened.