So Reverend Tony Cook ministered on grace and I want to kind of
conclude the subject of grace, not necessarily dealing with the
subject of grace, although I'll mention it, but I want to talk
about the other side that a lot of times we as believers call
grace, but it is not. And we want to clarify these
terms because one will puts us in the need for grace and grace
itself will extend the other. All right, and so I'm talking
about mercy, say mercy. So in Hebrews chapter 4, verse
16, it says this. Therefore, let us draw near with
what confidence, You know what confidence is.
Confidence is not arrogance because arrogance is being, is
confident in yourself. OK, that's arrogance.
Confidence that they're talking about here is confidence in God.
That means you're fully assured that God will do what He says He
will do. So it tells us that we are to
draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.
So we should not come to the throne lacking confidence.
In fact, if you come to the throne lacking confidence,
there's a good chance you will not receive what the throne has
to offer. Now, why do I say that?
Because the Bible tells us in James that we are to be people
of faith, meaning that we are to have our minds steadfast on God.
That if we, if there's anything we need, we are to ask God.
And how are we to ask God? With confidence, a firm
persuasion, not doubting. Because if we doubt, then we're
like the sea, we're tossed here and there.
So if you're coming to the throne and you have doubt, this
is a problem because a double minded man is unstable in his
ways and the Bible says they should expect to receive nothing
from God, not, not because God does not have something to give,
but because we do not understand how to approach the throne.
Let me say it this way. In the Kingdom there is a
protocol. I'm going to say that again.
In the Kingdom, there is a protocol.
OK, let's go. Let's break it down real simple.
In order to get in the Kingdom, there is a protocol how to enter
it. You do not enter the Kingdom any
way you want to. In fact, you do not even enter
the Kingdom as you are. You enter the king.
You may come to the door as you are, but you come in different.
So there is a protocol to come into the Kingdom and the
protocol is you must believe in your heart, confess with your
mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord and that gives you entrance through
the door into his Kingdom. Jesus said unless a man's born
again he will not see or enter the Kingdom.
That's called protocol. He said any other way a person
would try to come in doesn't exist.
Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the lie.
So there is a protocol just to enter into the gates.
Are you hearing me? There is protocol when it comes
to the Kingdom in the exercising of faith.
The things that are received from God are received by faith.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? That means there's a protocol
associated with that. Well, again, when you stand
before the throne, when you come in, Thrones are in kingdoms, not
religions. When you come before the throne,
He is letting us know. In Hebrews, there's a protocol.
He wants you to have confidence. In essence, it's this way.
When you're approaching the throne, it's because you are
already in a context, speaking with the Lord, having a
conversation with the Lord, hearing from the Lord.
Because when you're coming before the throne of grace,
you're coming to receive something and you come with
confidence. Confidence meaning I'm firmly
persuaded what God says I will have.
Now here's the thing, you may come before the throne and not
know yet, but this is what you do know.
Whatever He says, He will do, and I'm confident of that.
So whatever situation I'm going through, I can come to the
throne of grace confidently, knowing my King will hear my
case. He will help settle my case, and
He will give me a word to stand on that cannot be stopped unless
I stop it. Are you hearing me?
So? Therefore, let us draw near with
confidence through the throne of grace so that we may receive
what is it mercy and find grace to help in time and need.
So notice mercy and grace. So mercy is not grace and grace
is not mercy. Now you'll hear people all the
time, he said ma'am, but for the grace of God, well, is it for
the grace of God in that situation or is it for the mercy
of God? Because sometimes we're saying
the grace of God in a situation when the reality is that's the
mercy of God functioning in our lives.
It is not the grace of God. Are you hearing me OK?
Mercy by definition means this kindness of goodwill towards the
miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.
While grace is favored, it's the spiritual condition of 1
governed by the power of divine grace.
And if you were with us, with Reverend Tony Cook, who is a
teacher in the body of Christ, he's the fivefold ministry gift
of teacher. He taught us that there is a
saving grace, but there is a serving grace.
There is a strengthening grace. There are multifacets of grace.
So the grace we have is not just to save us out of the domain of
darkness and transfer us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.
Once we're in the Kingdom, then we receive the grace Jesus has
because the Bible tells us that Jesus was full of grace.
And grace that we have initially is called unmerited favor,
meaning it we didn't deserve for God to extend this grace to us,
but He does because he is merciful.
Are you hearing me? But once you're in the Kingdom,
then you receive the strengthening grace.
Or another way you could call it is empowering grace.
And that's the grace Jesus operated.
Because what did Jesus ever do He didn't deserve other than
taking on your sin, but he could take on your sin because he was
empowered by the grace of God, the empowerment of grace that
Jesus walk because the Bible says he was full of grace.
Is that every temptation that ever came?
So that he who emptied himself of his godly, of his, of his, of
his nature, or of his attributes in heaven, and he emptied
himself and became a man in the earth without sin every time
temptation came, so that he could sin, and he could have if
he had chosen. But he chose not to, because the
grace empowered him to resist every temptation.
The Bible says he was tempted on all accounts, yet he never
sinned. And why was that the grace of
God in his life? It was the grace.
So when you're born again and you receive Christ empowering
grace, you actually are now empowered by grace to resist
temptation. No longer should you conclude
that you are a Sinner saved by grace.
You were a Sinner separated loss and could not help but sin.
Now you are a believer, and the grace of God that you are now as
a believer actually has the ability when you renew your mind
by the Spirit of God, that you can resist every temptation to
sin. Glory to God because you have
been transferred into this Kingdom which has separated you
from the Law of sin and death and moved you into the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
And the life in Christ Jesus is a life that can resist the
temptation to sin. Now you can't stop temptation
because Jesus couldn't stop temptation.
In fact, the Holy Spirit let him into the wilderness to be
tempted of the devil, of which he never succumbed.
Glory to God and if he could resist a direct personal attack
from Satan. And the majority of us never
even have Satan show up at our house.
I mean, you are really giving yourself a lot of accolades if
you think the devil is actually coming after you.
I'm just letting you know, right?
No, right, no. Right now, the devil is not
messing with the majority of lost people or believers because
lost is already somewhere. They're already in his domain.
They're already separated from God.
The ones that are born again, most of them are still immature
and carnal, that their flesh still dominates them.
And he doesn't even have to talk to him.
All right, So don't flatter yourself too much to say that
Satan has shown up. I would say, I would personally
say today, Satan has never showed up at my house.
Now, some spirits have shown up, and that's relatively recent,
but prior to that I wasn't on their radar.
Are you hearing me? Anyway, once you're in here in
the Kingdom of God, now you have this ability to be able to
resist this temptation. So mercy leads to grace, and
grace will grant mercy. Are you hearing me OK?
Jesus said this in Matthew Chapter 9 verse 13.
He said this. I'm going to read out the
amplified class. He said go and learn what this
means. I desire mercy, that is
readiness to help those in trouble and not sacrifice and
sacrificial victims. For I I came to call.
I came not to call and invite to repentance the righteous, those
who are upright in and right standing with God, but sinners
and the airing ones and all who flip are not free from sin.
Now this quote is coming from Hosea 6/6 and if we were would
to go over to Hosea 6/6 which we will not.
But it the context of this chapter is the Lord talking to
unrepentant Israel and He is accounting through his prophet
Hosea how many times he sent his prophets to the nation for them
to repent and that he acted at God, acted on His word at times
through judgment because he told them in Deuteronomy 28, if you
follow and obey me, all these blessings happen.
But then when you get to the 15th verse, he said, now if you
disobey me, all these curses are going to come.
In essence, if you act this way, then I have, I have to be a doer
of my word because you're not keeping my word to allow these
things to occur. But if you keep my word, then I
will keep my word concerning you.
But unfortunately, Israel did not keep the word, so he would
send prophets to remind them, keep my word.
Repent. I need you to repent.
Do not think that what you're doing is going unnoticed or you
will not be held accountable to it.
Because he is a righteous judge or righteous king, the Savior of
the world is Lord supreme in authority.
And so in Hosea he is communicating.
Look, I've sent my profits and there were times in your
disobedience, I let famines come.
I let the sword come to destroy for the purpose of letting you
know your actions are causing this.
Just repent. Because he told them.
If you'll repent, if you'll turn back to me, then I'm going to
protect you. I'm going to come in like a
flood. I'm going to do it right.
But if you don't, you, you force my hand because God is a
righteous judge. We don't get away with anything.
So Hosea is saying to them, oh man, I wish that I desire mercy
instead of sacrifice. In fact, one writer of this
passage says it this way. I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
was the Lord say I taught them righteousness by my prophets,
for I desired mercy. I was more willing to save than
to destroy. So notice God's heart is always
more willing to save. However He will destroy, He will
act on His word concerning things that will cause people to
be separated. He says I would rather see them
full of pentant and holy resolution then before them
offering the best and most numerous victims upon my altar.
Meaning what they were doing is they were still performing
sacrifices with no change of heart.
And this why I said I desire mercy instead of sacrifice
because again you want to keep your behavior and throw
something to me when the reality is I am a merciful God and I
will judge if necessary. But God doesn't want to have to
do this. Why James chapter 2 verse 13?
Look what it says, for judgment will be merciless to those who
show who have shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over
judgment. I said mercy triumphs over
judgment. Now, that does not mean that
judgment cease to exist. Are you hearing me?
OK? I need a couple volunteers.
OK. Come on, Charlie.
Hurry. Charlie.
Yes. I need 2.
Yes, I'll take you. Come.
Yeah. With your hand raised.
Whichever one y'all one of y'all can come.
I don't care. Both of you.
Yeah. Bring both of you work.
Come on up on the platform, please.
Charlie, I need you to hold this string.
Get to the very end of it, please.
You take this one. Get to the very end.
Stretch it all the way across. Very good.
Come on, ladies. The Lord is good.
You know what? I'm going to give you this one
instead. Stretch it all the way.
OK, ladies, come on. I want you to take this one.
I want you to stand right beside her.
You stand right beside her, and I want you to come over here and
stand because these are basically the same length.
Stretch them out. Hold yours a little higher.
There you go. Can y'all see these?
All right. OK, so we give you a quick
lesson in the mercy of God. Are you ready?
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and it was
good, right? He said.
Then God said this. Then God said let us make man in
our image recorded in our likeness.
I'm gonna deal with earth at this point I could go further,
but let's just deal with earth, OK?
God said let us make man in our image recording our likeness and
let him have dominion or rule over the fish of the sea, birds
of the sky, where all the cattle, every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth and over all the earth.
So God created man in his own image and the likeness of God,
both male and female, they had demeaning.
So God would rule in the heaven realm, Man rules in the earth
realm. God would come down often in the
the cool of the day and and have relationship with the man and
the woman. They did not have to go to
heaven to have that relationship because heaven and earth looked
alike and in context of godliness and no sin, God's
realm and man's realm. Then he says to man.
He says, man, you can eat from any tree of the garden, but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not
eat. For the day you eat you will.
Surely you'll What? So if Adam had never eaten the
fruit, where would he be today? Which tells us if we stayed in
obedience to God, this is God's lifeline.
I'm going to say life. I'm going to say life.
I'm going to say eternal life. And so God intended when He
created everything in His creation that it would run along
this line only for all eternity, for eternity's past to
eternity's future. We can't get to the ends of
these lines because it's where God started for all eternity.
It'd be to where God is for all eternity.
And those who are with Him will be with him.
That's also the angelic realm that stayed with Him and did not
rebel the minute God in his perfection, His Holiness, His
righteousness, the one who is only able to keep a just word,
He always keeps his word. He never fails to keep his word.
When he says, Adam, you can eat from any tree of the garment of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
You shall not eat, for the day you eat, you will surely die.
Means separation. Are you hearing me well?
Did Adam eat the fruit? And the Bible says through one
man's transgression, sin enter the world.
The wages of sin is. And here's the line of death
right here. This line will cease to exist in
a sense, because there will come a point where death will be
thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death, and
it will hold it for eternity, and there'll be no more death
after that. Are you hearing me?
So death starts at the disobedience of God, and God
says if you eat this fruit you will die.
Then we get to Genesis chapter 3.
He eats the fruit. God comes into the garden and
says, Adam, where are you? Not that he couldn't find it,
but what position are you in now?
Because you're not in the dominion I gave you.
In fact, Adam gave his dominion to the devil.
And now he is under the authority of the devil.
He has cut off, separated from God, and now the just punishment
of Adam is eternal separation. How many you agree with that?
Now here's the problem. Man is going to produce after
his own con because the kind man was prior to the fall was the
God kind. But when Adam fell from
dominion, his spirit man died and now he produces after his
kind. And that's why we all have
sinned and fallen, which means we all have to pay the price or
the wage associated with sin. It's called death.
Now God says in Genesis 3 that I'm going to send my seed
through the woman, and he's going to crush the devil's head,
right? The devil will bruise his heel,
but he'll crush his head. Jesus came to save the world,
but how does he save the world? He saves the world by making by
paying the price of this lawn, which means every action of sin
on this line, all humanity from Adam to the last person is on
this line. That Jesus's blood paid the
price for it did not go unnoticed.
Are you hearing me? Why does Jesus do this?
Because God said, let us make man in our image according to
our likeness, and let them have dominion.
Now that Adam has eaten the fruit and has fallen from
dominion, God is obligated to his own word.
Not because He is necessarily just going after you, it's
because He has to keep His Word concerning man.
And if Adam has eaten a fruit which has allowed no human from
him on to be in the likeness and image of God, God then obligated
to His own word must create a pathway back so that His Word is
true. So if none of us, if no one from
Adam to the last person ever would have except Jesus Christ
as their Lord, Jesus still would have came because God will
always do his word Hallelujah. Now question, if you do not
accept Jesus Christ as your Lord, which is the protocol to
come into the Kingdom, will God the Father, the Father of life,
still put people into the lake of fire?
Will they'll be eternally separated, even though the price
has been paid for because they do not meet the requirement
necessary by faith to be born again?
It's not their work, but it's His work.
Yet God will hold to their account.
What? The blood is not applied.
The blood is on the mercy seat. The blood is not on your book.
Oh, the other one. The Bible says that there are
books. There is the Lamb's Book of
Life, and your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life the
day you're born again. Prior to that you have another
book that has all of your deeds, all of your own doings, all your
treasons to the crown, and until the blood is taken off the mercy
seat and puts a paid in full to your account and then you get a
name transferred over to the Lamb's book of life.
God's word concerning sin will come to pass in your life and
you will go to the lake of fire. Is this not true?
This is mercy. We are all on this line.
Stretch it tight, ladies. We are all on this line.
And if you start sinning here and you're here and you've
created all this sin in your life and you're here and this
sin and God already knows you're going to create all this sin,
you know what? He's actually paid the price for
that. And because He's paid the price,
that's why He can be merciful. I like to say it this way.
I use this as an example. Most of the time we think of
mercy, which is we're in trouble.
When you're in trouble, mercy comes calling.
When you put yourself in disobedience, mercy is
necessary. When disobedience is present,
mercy is necessary. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
But if you'll walk in obedience, then grace can be imparted.
And there's the difference. Now we were all sinners and
we're all on this line, but God wants us to have life and life
more abundantly. But how in the world can we get
from this line to that line? It's the mercy seat.
So take think of these as two interstates, right?
And this is the off ramp. Then when you receive the mercy
of God, it allows you to go from one location to the other.
Mercy takes you off of this line and puts you on this line, and
grace will keep you on this line.
I'll say grace will keep you on this line, but it requires
mercy. So if you were driving 70 miles
an hour in a 55 and a police officer pulls you over, are you
guilty by breaking the law? Are does the officer have every
legal right to issue you a ticket?
Let's just go a little more extreme.
You're driving 50 miles over the speed limit, which at that point
they could throw you in jail. So have you broken the law?
Does the police officer have a right to ticket and throw you in
jail? Yes, but as they talk with you,
look at you, they ask you what's going on, and in the process
you're like, Officer, this was what I was doing.
I know I'm wrong. I should not have been doing
this. I recognize that I'm in the
wrong here. I understand that you can give
me a ticket and throw me in jail.
I understand that. But I throw myself on your Now
if they are merciful, then what do they do?
They give you a a warning and then they release you and to
you. You think it's settled.
Now technically in the natural it is, But let's take it from
Jesus's perspective. If he was the officer, if Jesus
was the officer, he then would go back to the station, He would
pull out the amount of money necessary to pay the fine
because it cannot just go away without being paid.
He will pay the fine and then put himself in jail to pay your
full penalty. So there's never a lying to a
parent, an outburst of anger. I started there, gossip,
slander, unforgiveness that does not require payment.
There's never a time that we've done something that it does not
require blood. And blood's on the mercy.
And if we repent, then the mercy takes us off one line to the
next. Are you seeing this?
This is why God is merciful, because even if you're here in
this part of your life, none of this is going it.
You're not getting away with anything because Jesus is
actually already paid the price. Could he forgive you here?
Yeah, if you ask for it. But if you're choosing to wait
till you're down here, guess what?
Payment still there. So when it looks like people are
getting away with stuff, nobody's getting away with
anything. But what's happening all along
the route, God is saying you can get off, here's my mercy.
Well, I'm not doing it, so you keep going.
Here's my mercy, you can get off, but you don't do it.
Here's my mercy. You can get off, but you don't
do it. Here's my mercy, you can get
off, but you don't do it. Here you are towards the end of
your life, you're about to breathe your last breath, and
mercy comes calling. But if you breathe your last
breath and don't accept that mercy, then the blood never gets
applied to your account because God always keeps His word still
to this day. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So you need to understand there is a powerful price that's paid
for us to be on the lifeline and the off ramp is God's mercy.
Thank you ladies, you did amazing.
I appreciate it. Do you see that?
So let's see this connection together real quick.
We'll run through Hebrews chapter 2, verse one and seven.
We saw this Reverend Tony Cook, he says that This is why mercy
triumphs over judgment because God's going to judge judgment's
coming period. But mercy will put you on the
lifeline where the judgment you'll have then is the judgment
of the deeds you've done in Christ rewards.
But if you do not receive mercy, the reason mercy triumphs over
judgment is because it gets you off that eternal separation line
from God and that eternal judgment that places you in the
lake of fire. Mercy will triumph it not
because it's not paid for, it's because you received the payment
and and got off the line of disobedience.
So in Ephesians 2, one through 7, it says you were dead in your
trespass and sin in which you formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of
the heir of the Spirit that is now working in the sons of what?
So, you know, if you like disobeying, that's a problem.
If you like trying to figure out how much you can come to church
but not really follow God, that's a problem.
You need to be a son of obedience, not a son of
disobedience. And if the and if your father
corrects you and say, hey, you don't need to do that anymore.
You need to just say yes, heavenly Father, thank you for
empowering me not to and giving me mercy to make a correction
first three among them. We too all formerly lived in the
lust of the flesh and the indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children.
Wrath even has the rest. But God say, but God being rich
in, in what? In what?
It's by, it's by the grace of God, you're saved.
But it's the richness of his mercy that gives you a right to
his grace. Because if he was not merciful,
he would still be righteous in his judgment of you.
But he is a merciful God. This is why we should be
merciful people. He goes on to say, but being
rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved
us even when we were dead, because when Adam ate the fruit,
he says, well, there you go. But what did he do?
He said, no, I'm going to keep my own word.
I'm going to keep my word concerning them.
I'll send my own son to pay the price for everything wrong
that's on the line of disobedience so they can get
off. My mercy will take them off and
put them on the line of life, and then I'll grace them to live
there. Glory to God, I said, glory to
God, But God being rich in mercy because of the great love of
which He loved us even when we were dead and our transgression
made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with Him and seated
us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the
ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace
and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
There'll come a point that mercy is not necessary because it
would be a Society of just obedience of people who love to
obey their Father. Come on, are you hearing what
I'm saying? Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through
7 says. For we also were once foolish
ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various
lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice.
Wow, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hurting one
another, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our
Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on
the basis because which we have done in righteousness, but
according to His what? His mercy by the washing of
regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being
justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the
hope of of eternal life. So mercy is there to pardon all
sin. Grace is to purify our soul.
Mercy manifests out of the presence of disobedience, while
grace manifests out of the presence of obedience.
Mercy can deliver you when you get yourself in trouble.
Grace will deliver you when the world brings you trouble.
Romans chapter 914 to 16 Paul writing to the Roman church.
He said, what shall we say then? Is there no injustice with God
or is it There is no injustice with God, is there?
May it never be, For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have
compassion. So then it does not depend on
the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
Now the the correct context of this particular passage of
Scripture is that when God presents his word for you to
obey, that is mercy communicating.
If you yield to it, then you'll be saved.
If you do not yield, you will be hardened.
And the reason why some people never come off the off ramp of
mercy is not is not because God doesn't extend it is because
when he does, they do not want to receive it.
Then when he watches their own behavior of being merciless.
Now when we're lost, that's one thing.
But when you get born again and you become a person of no mercy,
that's problematic. I said.
That's problematic. Now, mercy is not forgiving you
without repentance. Mercy is I will forgive you
although you do not deserve it because you definitely have done
me wrong. However, if you will repent,
I'll have no problem forgiving you because I am merciful and I
just want us restored because that's what God did.
You disobeyed him, He was in the right position, and instead of
him just judging you based upon your action, he extended an
opportunity of mercy. But mercy comes when you repent.
I said when you repent. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
The Bible tells us in Matthew the Kingdom of God is like
heaven is like this. This guy came to the master, he
had an amount of debt he could not pay.
So he says send him over to the torturers, him and his family so
the debt can be paid. And he fell down and begged for
mercy, of which the master had compassion and forgave his debt.
But the minute he leaves within a day or so or that same day, he
finds one who only owes a day's wage and he's throws him to jail
to pay the the debt. When the others see it, they
went back to the master says I can't even believe this
happened. I mean, we know what debt this
guy was in and you forgave him. But he held this guy to an
account and it said that he brought him back in and he said,
how in the world could you have not extended the mercy I showed
you to this person in comparison of the amount of debt?
But because your heart was hard and because he showed no mercy
when he received mercy, then he was turned over to the
torturers, not for the debt, because that was forgiven before
the crime of being mercy less because when the one wanted, he
could have, he could have worked it out.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Boy, it's quiet in here.
I like a little shouting myself. First Peter, chapter 2, verses 9
through 11. The murloc translation says
this, But you are an elect race, officiating as priests of the
Kingdom, a holy people, a redeemed congregation, that ye
should proclaim the praise of him who called you out of
darkness into his precious light, who formerly were not
accounted of people, but now are the people of God.
And also there was there were once no mercies on you, but now
mercies are poured out on you. Come on, aren't you glad you've
received the mercies of God? My beloved, I entreat you as
strangers and pilgrims, separate yourself from all lusts of the
body that wage war against your soul.
I thank God for His mercy. And you know what?
His mercies are new every His mercies endure.
Why? Because He paid the price once
and for all. There's an opportunity as long
as you're breathing for you to come off the deaf line and get
onto the lifeline to get off the sons of disobedience line and
get over into the sons of obedience because then his grace
when you activate it by faith will empower you to not be a son
of disobedient again. First Timothy 112 to 14.
He said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who strengthened me
because he considered me faithful, putting me into
service even though I was formerly A blasphemer and a
persecutor and a violent aggressor.
Yet I was shown what mercy because I acted ignorantly in
unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with
the faith and love which are found in Christ.
Aren't you glad God was merciful for you, Laura Lee?
Aren't you glad God was merciful?
I mean, you understand when you recognize the mercy of God in
your life to put you in the place to be called sons of God.
And you remember that then it caused you to walk in the fear
of God. And there's no way you want to
get back on the line of sons of disobedience.
No way. No way you want that to operate
because we can boldly come or confidently go before the throne
of grace because when we get into challenges in our life, the
grace of God will keep us and we can go and then we can still
find mercy even in those situations that we did not have
as a self-inflicted issue, but an external that God would move
and empower us with his grace. You know, Tony could use this
scripture, but I'll say it again. 2nd Corinthians 12, seven
to nine, he talked about how he had a messenger from Satan to
try to keep him from being exalted.
And he he clearly communicated what that meant.
You need to go back on Wednesday night to see that most
translations does not get that correct.
And he said to him, what did he say?
My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected and
weakness meaning with you are being attacked from all sides
and all these things are coming against you and you're being of
obedient child of God. Let the grace of God, not the
mercy of God, but the grace of God, work in your life.
Because see, the Bible tells us that if you are being railed
against because you sin, well, it's because you sin.
But if you're being railed against because you are
maintained your righteousness, then it says God will get take
up your cause, Hallelujah. Because His grace will be
sufficient for you and will be the strength you need in that
time of weakness. Mercy is not required on your
end. It's the grace of God that will
keep you and perfect you. But I don't understand why many
believers want to live under God's mercy and not under His
grace. Because people who just live
under the mercy of God do not live the same life as a person
who lives under the grace of God.
You know, I don't want to just keep blowing it, blowing it,
blowing it, blowing it, blowing it just so God can keep being
merciful. His mercy extends to try to get
me to repent. That's what he did with the
nation of Israel. He extended his mercy, extended
his mercy, extended his mercy, extended his mercy.
And he's like, come on, I don't want to have to judge you, but
man, if you do not, then there comes a time that mercy stopped.
And it did with Israel, it did with Jerusalem.
Jeremiah says he's still preaching a message of
repentance that God says they're not going to do it and I'm
turning them over. So Paul recognized it's the
grace of God. First Corinthians 1510 says it
this way. But by the grace of God I am
what I am and his grace towards me did not prove what vain, but
I labored even more than them all, yet not I but the grace of
God within me. You know if anyone attacks you
because you are extremely purposeful and you understand
this word purpose in the churches people are trying to
make it negative, but you understand I am put that verse
back up. I want them to saturate in their
mind for a while. You should have a labor about
you because of the grace. If you are functioning under the
grace of God, you will have a labor about yourself.
You will have purpose, you will have direction, you will have
heading, you will be moving. You will be intentional because
the grace of God will compel you.
He said I am what I am by the grace of God.
And he says it's, it's not the labor of me, it's the grace in
me that propels me to do what I do because I don't live in the
mercy of God where I do what I want to do.
And then I blow it. And then I cry out to God and
God's mercy picks me up, turns me around, puts me back on the
line, and then I could go on my way again.
And then I fall on my face because I'm doing my own deal
and God's mercy comes running to me again.
Know when I'm in the grace of God, it keeps me from my own
selfish ambitions and moves me for the power and purpose of
God. Amen.
Hallelujah. And you understand when you
become an obedient child of God, you will seem like you're right
all the time, but you're not right.
He's right. You're doing his righteousness
because when all you do to any type of situation say, well,
what does the word say? And you do the word, then that's
makes you right. And it's the grace of God and
the passion that you have to be what God's called you to be.
And Paul said, look, I labor more than them all, but it
wasn't me. It was the grace of God.
Listen, not all of us have the same grace.
So we should never be upset at someone who's moving in the
grace of God. You move in your grace, but make
sure you're being intentional in your grace.
Now I know the grace that's on Anchor Faith Church, and because
I know the grace that's on Anchor Faith Church, I know what
that looks like. And if you don't have the grace
to run with Anchor Faith Church, then you must have a grace to
run with another church. So go run with the other church,
no problem. But those who are assigned to
Anchor Faith Church, there's a grace for us to do what we do.
And it's not me, but it's the grace.
This is why Paul says we're not taking John Mark.
He is not functioning in the grace necessary for the
assignment. We have Barnabas and Barnab's
like, yeah, but that's my, my nephew, man.
That's my family. That I mean, he he he's in my
family. OK, so you go pick your family
over the purpose of God. He called us out.
He separated us. Now, John Marks a great guy, but
at the end of the day, he's not grace to run this thing with us
right now. So Barnabas chose, and we never
hear from him again to stay with family.
And God says, next man up, Silas, you're going.
And Silas ran with the grace. Timothy ran with the grace.
Come on, they ran with the grace.
I said they ran with the grace. They ran with the grace.
I'd much rather round with grace people than mercy people.
But because you run with grace, guess what you can do?
You can extend mercy glory to God.
I said you can extend mercy because when you're in mercy,
you're looking for grace, but when you're under grace, you can
extend mercy. Hallelujah.
So it's better to live a life of grace that when needed has mercy
along the way, than to live a life upon God's mercy alone,
never experiencing the power of His grace.