A Grace Worth Living

[Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning g-stop and good morning to those that are watching by the way of the internet today we're celebrating our pastor's birthday i'm gonna give god a handclap of praise for our pastor [Music] how many of you came in on this morning you raised your level of expectation you came in with a praise on your lips you're not gonna let what you're going through dictate your praise on this morning because the bible tells us when praises go up blessings come down to let us bow for a word of prayer father god in the name of jesus god we just thank you on this morning god we thank you god because god you allowed us to see this day that was not promised to us god god we thank you god because you kept us all week long father from hurt hormone danger god that's enough to give your name some praise god we just thank you for who you are god god there's nobody else like you nowhere god we thank you for being our provider god we thank you for being el shaddai god we thank you for being away maker god god we thank you for being our everything father god we thank you for being our light father god we thank you for being that peace dear god god we just thank you on this morning god because god we know god that you are the king of king and the lord of lords god and so god we ask you on this morning god so just have your way in this place god holy spirit you're welcome god we thank you father because god on today god break through god will happen on today we thank you god that strongholds will be brought down on today god we thank you god because uh today god whatever it is that we came in god we won't leave the same way god we thank you god for being a healer on this morning god some of us been in this thing too long but god on today god we thank you for healing god both physically and mentally dear god god we thank you god because god we know nothing is too hard for you god so god we just ask you god to touch all over this building god meet every need father touch every person dear god and so god we ask you right now guys to just continue father to bless the brothers of this service dear god god we ask you god to bless those that are on their way to your god father we ask you to bless both of our location father the jesus west campus god and bless the main campus dear god we ask you god to continue father to bless pastor antoine and lady oh dear god father we thank you god for blessing our very own senior pastor god not first lady we ask you god to bless the first family god and every family god that's gathered here on this morning but not at this church god we ask you to bless every church god that stands open in your name dear god we ask you god that some woman run and ask what must i do to be saved and so god we ask you right now father god to continue father to touch us god as we continue to have that spirit of forgiveness god we thank you right now father we ask you god to continue to have your way in your son jesus name let every glam heart say amen and amen [Music] hallelujah come on and put those hands together hallelujah hallelujah what an awesome god we serve amen hallelujah he's big and there's nothing that he can handle do i have a witness this morning hallelujah come on and put those blessed hands together [Music] come on make some noise in this place hallelujah father we give you glory [Music] yay here we go see my god so for me is victory victory victory help me save my god it's is victory say it again my god [Music] say it again my god [Music] is victory victory victory there's nothing my god cannot do probably say there's nothing [Music] he can handle anyways [Music] one more time my god [Music] there's nothing put it in harmony he can handle anything [Music] there's nothing my oh yes he is [Music] say come on now put those hands together come on celebrate the lord i can't he's a big god [Music] [Music] oh [Music] i got it [Music] is victory [Music] is [Music] [Music] said is victory i [Music] there's nothing my god cannot do say with me [Music] he can do what seems impossible [Music] [Music] hallelujah come on and lift up with praise in this place come on all the victorious people make some noise come on we're not talking about for me but for him come on we talking about the kings of kings and the lord of lords hallelujah open up your mouth and give them a praise in this place he's worthy hallelujah father we bless your name there's no day too big for you hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hallelujah since we here you are you might as well go ahead and give them praise hallelujah come on the fact that you're here that's reason enough to give them praise hallelujah while the blood is running warm through your veins and there's breath in your body you ought to open up your mouth and give them praise hallelujah hallelujah come on let's go [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what's up [Music] [Music] [Music] we give hallelujah glory lord we give you glory god we give you glory hallelujah [Music] god we want to say thank you [Music] hallelujah you ought to just take this opportunity just to deal with thank you can you tell it thank you thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus thank you jesus oh we lift your name master we lift your name master hey my my oh he's a mighty good god hallelujah i don't know what you came for but we came to give him glory we came to give him glory [Applause] [Music] god because when we weren't worthy [Applause] [Music] and you think about where you should be compared to where you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] your neighbor's doing right now [Music] [Applause] just take a look in the [Music] mirror it could be a little bit worse [Applause] i know who i am [Music] [Applause] can y'all [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] let's play that again say thank you lord thank you lord [Music] god we thank you [Music] god this is why we want to tell them [Music] anybody [Music] [Music] say it one last time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] i just want to thank you [Applause] you're worthy you're worthy and we honor you in this place [Music] help me is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Music] [Music] oh i will see [Music] yes oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] of the goodness of god you're worthy hallelujah [Music] [Music] good morning my name is [Music] join us tomorrow at 7pm from monday school this month's scene is about labor and game has been a very powerful series search monday school to watch live every tuesday we have youth bible study you can watch live by searching bible study on facebook or tuning in [Music] tune in wednesday at 7 pm for our mid-week service you can watch it by accessing our main campus facebook page pastor or one of the ministers will be bringing the word [Music] [Music] and you will be automatically needed our second option is our cash out option it and then our third is is our zeal option and it is giving at [Music] and thank you for gstop.org enjoy the rest of the service [Music] family amen amen [Music] [Applause] it will be [Music] amen amen [Music] [Applause] we have yeah [Applause] [Music] and as i say we are celebrating his 65th birthday amen yes and i don't know if he's so happy about turning 65 65 but he's just been running i kid you not running around the house i qualify for medicare i qualify for medicare hey honey i got my card in the mail yes he's excited but again to our guests we are so happy that you are here if you are guest in our house we celebrate you on this morning and if you are a guest worshiping online we celebrate you as well and why don't you continue to worship jesus on this morning amen amen amen praise the lord somebody praise the lord somebody pastor when we were going over our songs of what we were going to do today i thought about i said well what would our pastor want us to sing on his day and so we're going to take it back a few few years but i'm going to tell you something about uh your pastor and my dad um i think i can recall one time in the last 45 years that i've ever seen my dad down so what y'all see up here is what we get at home and i think that was when my grandmother died when he lost his mom in 45 years i never saw him at a place where he there was a challenge in his praise i'm gonna put it there that way so i'll say pastor i know that you don't wait till the battle is over to shout so we're going to sing this for you we're going to take it back and sing this one for you because if there's anything he taught me it was don't wait till the battle is over you better shout right now hallelujah because see tomorrow in promise come on [Music] [Music] come on [Music] [Music] we will sing hallelujah [Music] [Music] we will sing hallelujah i'm going up to glory when the battle is over you're gonna look for me and i'll hallelujah gonna walk and talk to jesus i'm gonna tell them all about my triumph tell them all about my pain huh wash it away [Music] i'm gonna praise him right now i'm gonna praise him right now i'm gonna praise him right now hey [Music] hallelujah hallelujah say hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Music] should [Music] hallelujah hallelujah when the battle is over if you're not already standing i ask that you stand to your feet now pastor now pastor they pulled something over on you today and it wasn't me cause i know that you don't like surprises so it wasn't me so maybe i'll be the new favorite since since i say this but pastor i'm gonna bring up here if you're not already standing come on and stand for lady antoinette taylor [Music] say hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah [Music] say hallelujah [Music] right now today in this moment gonna praise him right now don't play them right now gonna praise him right now [Music] what a friend we have in jesus name all of our sins and griefs are bad do you know he's listen good morning good shepherd temple of praise good morning good shepherd temple of praise y'all can be seated hallelujah happy birthday daddy [Music] yes so my mom told me that he was sitting over there saying oh i'm done y'all can go sorry my mom says uh my dad looked at her and was like twine not here because he thought tuan was teaching but one's not teaching this morning y'all get to hear from me this morning now um i got a text message that said the screen was gonna say bishop elect tony taylor so i thought i was getting elevated today and it does not say bishop elect so i'm slightly disappointed that there's no elevation but we're gonna do this anyway so uh as they said i am antoinette rayshawn taylor i am the second oldest uh i go by tony that's spelled f-a-v-o-r-i-t-e yes that's how you spell it so i am charlie's favorite worship leader i am also charlie's favorite drummer and he's not here but you gotta know i'm charlie's favorite preacher also right so i got all of this thing unlocked so if you want to address me at any time you can just say hey favorite and i will answer you so that is who i am i am charlie's favorite and the other ones try to act like they got him just because they serve here but they ain't got nothing on me like nothing at all and it doesn't matter what anybody says i know my role in my position because god called me to it god placed that purpose in my life and i proudly hold my head up and walk in the position that god called me to which is his favorite so now i'mma get into what i'm supposed to be doing but i just had to let everybody know that you spell it f-a-v-o r-i-t come on somebody if that wasn't a sermon in itself that that's how you spell it all right so grab your bibles grab your phone your ipad whatever you have i have paper today um i had an ipad and my husband talks about me because he said i'm old school because i will always take and in paper over electronics but that's because pen and paper does not fail you and my ipad that's in my bag decided he wanted to rearrange my message for some reason but that's okay because paper never fails you so i want you to grab what you have turn to second timothy 2. um while you're doing that i'm going to get some quick acknowledgements out the way i only need like 20 minutes so i'm gonna talk a little bit and then i'm gonna teach so uh to my father and my mother dg and ce um it's pastor to y'all and it's daddy to some people paw paw nana but i call him charlie and deborah gayle so um yes that's that's that's what i call them because we have that relationship so thank you for this opportunity like i said my daddy didn't know i was coming but my mom invited me and she would not have invited me if she didn't know that it would be okay and that it would be received so i'm grateful for the opportunity i'm grateful for everything that you all have taught me important to me over the years i don't get to serve with you in ministry anymore but i served long enough to watch you and see you and learn from you and so what you have poured into me at home and here in ministry is a direct result of why i'm standing here today so i'm grateful and i bless you and honor you as my leaders um my husband is not here uh he's being a pastor and one of our ministers is teaching his first sermon today so of course my pastor is at home not at home he's at church but he sends his love amen all right so i too i have some people here with me to celebrate me and to serve me and to support me minister tanya cunningham minister kendrick lott and brother isaac glad to see you slid in here on me i know you was coming y'all have you ever met somebody who has um a gift of worship a gift of praise just you watch how they praise you watch how they worship and it just blesses your whole entire spirit and you are so uh you might be bound you might be upset but it's something about watching how they worship it just lifts things off of you that's uh brother isaac lot right there y'all he just got this way of rocking when he worshipping and he ain't thinking about nobody else and it is such a blessing so i'm grateful that i get to watch a gift of worship as i'm standing in teaching at home i'm grateful for them because god has brought amazing people into my life to teach me to mentor me to disciple me and not only that they listen to me so they're older than me and they've taught me so much about myself but they also allow me to teach them they're teachable so i'm grateful for them and lastly my three piece i'ma tell you why i have to shout them out every time because it's difficult being a pastor's kid okay and people don't understand what you don't have to clap so hard people don't understand what what that's like and what all that entails being a pastor's kid when all eyes are on you and even if nobody ever says anything to you people are watching you and when you make mistakes for some reason your mistakes are so different from the other mistakes of the other kids that's the same age and going through the same things that you're going through and so they handle this thing with grace and the thing about it do y'all know it's not just the church people that put those expectations on pastors kids i remember my kids be at school and their teachers are telling them well your dad is a pastor so you shouldn't be doing this and you shouldn't be doing that that's not good that's why you have pastors kids that grow up and leave the church because people have put unfair expectations on them so i'm always going to celebrate my children for supporting me and supporting ministry so i'm grateful for them all right so y'all ready okay let me see what my time look like i don't have no clock but y'all i'm telling y'all y'all give me 20 minutes i'm going to be done so we're going to be reading from the new king james version second timothy 2nd chapter verses 1 through 2. and uh before i read this i want to tell y'all something so it took me a long time to finally do what god was telling me to do right why are you laughing at me minister tanya that's cause she know when i say a long time a long time to do what god was telling me to do and when i finally gave god my yes and i started asking him what does this look like because just because you're a minister just because you're a preacher don't mean that you're going to do the same thing that the next preacher does each of us our assignment looks different and how y'all i'm sorry i don't see somebody else back there y'all gonna stop surprising me okay i'm sorry that's minister siobhan back there is anybody at church this morning okay i'm gonna do what i'm supposed to do okay so i asked god what was my assignment supposed to be how does this look and what he told me was you're gonna know bible you're going to study bible but you're going to teach from a life lens because we get so much bible when we're sitting in church and oftentimes we really don't understand what the preacher is saying but you have a gift to share your life you have a gift of transparency so you're going to teach bible but you're going to teach it with the life lens and so i'm going to give you some bible but i'm going to give you a whole lot of life experience amen amen so let's read paul says in second timothy 2 1-2 you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also all right so i'm aretha one more time you therefore my son be strong in the grace where stacey you was talking about grace be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus and the things that you have heard from me the things that you have heard from me your teacher your leader the things you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also so today we're going to spend a few minutes developing a thought and getting some encouragement from a subject titled a grace worth living come on and say it with me a grace worth living come on let's pray god we thank you we honor you and we bless you right now god i pray that you would just calm my nerves soothe my spirit god and allow me to just speak the words that you have given me to speak god my prayer is that this will be encouraged this encouragement it will be received and there is somebody in here god that i know needs to hear what it is that you have placed in me today so as i deliver your word my prayer is that i do it boldly and that they don't see me but they see your mouthpiece they see your words and they see exactly what it is that you are orchestrating god i love you we bless you amen amen a grace worth living um our foundation in life is developed in our childhood or throughout our childhood and that foundation becomes the basis of everything that we do what we say what we feel and what we experience throughout our life throughout our adult life so that's why when you have two people that come together and get married it's always bumpy for a while because you have two different backgrounds two different foundations coming together to make one so if you had a traumatic childhood then everything that you see everything that you do everything that you experience is colored through a traumatic lens unless you make a decision to do the work right so i am a proponent of therapy you need it it's available it's always there for you so if you do the work you have an opportunity to shift that trauma lens that colors and changes everything that you see now on the other hand if you had a great childhood you know let's say everything was rainbows and roses you were the favorite um you know you your childhood was cool well as an adult everything you experience everything you do everything you say and feel is also colored through that lens right now this is a thing you might be thinking oh well that's a great thing to see life through rainbow and rose colored lenses but that's also not good because life is not all happy happy joy joy and if you walk into every situation thinking it's always going to work out it's always going to be good then you find yourself being disappointed over and over and being hurt over and over and being frustrated over and over and you feel like people have let you down when in reality you let yourself down because nobody told you that everything always works out so you also got to do the work to see and have a realistic expectation of what life looks like so in our text in our text paul has written this letter to timothy paul wrote this letter during the end near the end of his life the end of his journey and he's writing this letter to timothy timothy who served with him timothy uh timothy traveled with him timothy learned from him timothy studied from him and paul wrote this letter to timothy not for unbelievers but paul wrote this letter to timothy giving him instruction or foundation for the character of the person who serves christ so again it's not for unbelievers this letter paul wrote to timothy letting him know what the character of the people who serve christ should be like so basically he gave timothy a lens with which to see his people through and to develop his people through so i'm gonna go back to what that scripture said and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will teach others also so this lens that's developed throughout your childhood now for me and my siblings growing up one of the foundational elements of our house was love right uh love a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties another definition of love is an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another now if that don't sound like y'all passing first lady because they are the definition of love they ooze love like it just comes out of their pores they do it like it doesn't even take any effort for them right they just love people they love people so much so that they had an open door policy well they actually still have an open door policy right anybody can come to their house they're the type of parents that their house is the hangout house right so my siblings and my uh nieces and nephews all of their friends call them nana and paw paw they're not mr nickerson and ms nickerson they're now in paw paw they have the hangout house not only do they have the hangout house y'all somebody always living with them always living with them and so growing up i mean it's like somebody will move out in may and we will get a few months and then by like august september november somebody knew that moved in like it was just always somebody moving in and so we ex we saw that that was a foundational principle that was taught in our house was love now this is a thing we taught it i mean they taught it we learned it and how it's been developed in us is exhibited different ways so you take my sister my sister is deborah gail jr right my sister have an open door policy her house is the hangout house all kennedy and kobe friends can come over there and stay people can live with my sister antoine is the same way and i told him if y'all take in anybody else's kid because they always have somebody living with them right because that's what they learned the foundational principle was love and that's what they display now me i love you and so you need help with a place to stay okay i can help you with some rent money um i can help you get a hotel room i can connect you with somebody that's gonna help you learn how to budget so you can stay within your means and you can maintain this lifestyle that's how i display my love you can't come live with me like you you can't and so two different children the same lens but how we display that it looks different that's what i can teach you but why do we do these things we do these things because we were taught from our parents to show love that's a foundational principle that we learned in our house so first corinthians 13 4-5 now we hear this taught at weddings all the time right we hear it as instruction to the bride and groom about how to love each other however when paul wrote this letter he was not he wrote it to the church of corinth he wasn't talking about a married love he wasn't talking about arrows he was talking about how we love each other this unconditional love he was talking about agape love when he wrote this but because it sounds so good we put it in we put it in weddings but i'ma read it love is patient and kind love does not envy or boast it is not arrogant or rude it is not arrogant or rude and we're not talking about marriage so don't put that in your marriage put that in life it is not arrogant or rude it does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful and it does not count up wrong doing so i have a question for everybody in here this morning how are you loving i think it's a legitimate question how are you loving is your love patient and kind now again we're not talking about eros love with my spouse who god has brought us together and i just like him or i like her like that so i have patient type of love no we're talking about the church member we're talking about your neighbor we're talking about the teacher at your children's school how are you loving is your love patient and kind or do you get frustrated and talk about people when they fall or when they fail is your love patient and kind do you exhibit grace or do you talk about them is your love boastful do you find a way to work your latest sacrifice into every conversation that you have with people what do i mean by your latest sacrifice okay so i told y'all that i'll help pay your bill right okay wait there's limits to that though right i forgot to put that part in you can't just keep getting my money it's you know there's some limits in there but um do you find a way to work that latest sacrifice into conversation you know i'm we're sitting up and we're having conversation and it's you and it's uh it's deacon jackson and it's it's uh and it's backing y'all just sitting up talking about oh y'all know this summer been tough and these electricity rates are going out of control and you in the conversation about yeah you know i had to help leasing them pay their electricity bill last month but god is good because i was able to do it is your love boastful why did they need to know that what was your reason for giving that sacrifice and what happens is because you decided that you needed credit for your sacrifice god is sent back like nazis nah is your love boastful when you go down to the homeless shelter for the first time because you've missed all the other evangelical outings that the church has had but you go for the first time and now you're on facebook because you got to take your selfie and you got to take it and this is the thing you don't just take it over to the side by yourself you got to make sure the people you're serving are in the background because you need people to see it and you need them to understand your sacrifice why what's your true reason for being there so is your love boastful is your love rude listen y'all deliver me lord please deliver me from people who say i'm just real yeah deliver me from those people i said it before and i'll keep saying it no you're not real you're rude you're not real you're rude i told y'all earlier love is unselfish loyal and benevolent concerned for the good of another so when you are talking to god's children it's not love if it's not from god and if it's come and it's coming from a place of weakness when you start saying i'm just real no you rude and you weak which is why you talking to people like that and guess what i said what i said you're not real you're rude and there's nothing about what you're saying that's coming from god and you stand on it and you say well i just call it like it is there is a way to tell the truth in love i learned that the reason i can tell you that you're rude and not real is because i used to be that person you couldn't beat me telling somebody what it was how it was and how they need to get there because i thought i'm just real and i don't have time to fake the funk and i remember a day sitting at my sister's house and i was talking with my uncle he was there and we were just sharing about life and how i had grown and he told me something that it should have encouraged me but it really broke my heart and he told me he said i'm so happy to see how you're doing he said when i used to be afraid to even speak to you y'all my uncle who has known me all my life said to me i used to be afraid to even speak to you because he didn't know who he was going to get but me the pastor's kid i i talk to people in love right because i'm just real and so but no i wasn't real i was rude and what god had to do was break me down with how disrespectful i was being to his children and the reason god had to show me that that's how i was being to his children is because i'm a mama so god had to appeal to the mama in me to make me understand listen come on mamas you can't talk to my babies any kind of way it don't matter how old they are they will my 20 year old that's going to be 21 in a couple of days you can't talk to him any kind of way because you will have to deal with his mama and god had to show me that from a mama's heart or from a father's heart how come you talking to my kids any kind of way but you don't want nobody talking to your kids any kind of way why are you talking to people any kind of way and you don't want people talking to you any kind of way why are you telling people's business and you don't want nobody telling your business why as the young people say house way make it make sense it doesn't so this is the thing so my kids they think i'm a little special and they think i'm extremely extra i am not okay so we're just gonna have to agree to disagree because um i don't agree with them and so the thing about my my kids who i birth like these three belong to me and they daddy so i don't want it and and i'm only saying this because i need you to understand what i'm uh what i'm building they have the same mama and daddy they have the same blood running through them right so they will get to arguing with each other and at some point because y'all know you if you don't have kids you've seen kids and you know kids have no filter and they go for the jugular and if you've been around alyssa ray taylor she had them worst parts of her mama and so we just pray for her but um so at some point during the argument because i typically will let them go because it's conflict resolution you can't always stop you they got to learn how to work through it right so at some point one of them will cross a line and they will say something to the other one that will stop me dead in my tracks and what i will say to the kid that i birthed do not talk to my kid that way now alyssa i carried and birthed her micah i carried and birthed him and i'm going to tell alyssa do not talk to my kid that way i birthed him i carried him and you are not going to disrespect my child so if i won't let my kid disrespect his sister or brother why do i think i can disrespect my sister or brother why do you think you can disrespect your sister or brother talking about your sister and brother because they fail talking about him because oh you know she had a different boyfriend last week and you know this week she all on facebook with somebody else or you saw her out in the streets and because you didn't like the outfit why she wearing that just cause they make it in your size don't mean you have to wear it or matter of fact they come in looking good like they fly ain't nothing wrong with what they have on and all you do is be like because some just pop in your head and you like why why are we disrespecting why okay so does your love keep score you know does your love keep score of wrongdoing because i can tell you what you said to me three years ago and four years ago and five years ago does your love keep score and then when you're keeping score does that keep you from seeing how a person has grown and how they've changed and how they've tried to repent and how they've tried to apologize for who they used to be but you won't let them grow does your love keep score now this is the thing we say that you can forgive but you never forget so i know there are some things that they're just always in your mind but you don't have to keep track of them and act on them every time you see somebody can i tell you something if love kept score there is no way they'd have me standing up here today if their love kept score on the things i did wrong and the things i listen to me if love kept score some of y'all wouldn't even be listening to me listening to me right now because y'all know what y'all saw i know what i saw but i know all the things that i did see y'all know that y'all saw some of my mess i saw some of your mess you saw some of somebody's mess but i know all the things that i did i know all the struggles i had i know all the pain i caused i know all the people i hurt and so if love was keeping score i wouldn't be able to be up here today so you can't keep score because if you keep scoring you will miss out on a huge blessing that god has for you on the comeback when somebody changes their life and they give it over to him amen amen so let's go back to our text paul is talking to timothy timothy a believer timothy a servant and paul tells timothy to take the things he's learned from him and to teach them to faithful men who will teach others so you know each one teach one so i have another question for you what lessons are you teaching people about how to love because remember it's not about what you say it's about what you do people are watching you so i learned from my husband and we hear it all the time where people say your life will live many more sermons than your lips can ever teach people are watching your life so what lessons are you teaching people about love from your life because even if they never come up to you and tell you they're watching you please know they're watching how you treat people and what happens is you're at work and you're talking about the people at your church and you talking about the preacher because when the preacher was teaching sunday they accidentally said that jonah was in the ark and so now you at work talking about girl that preacher was teaching uh man that preacher was teaching and he don't know nothing and so and then as soon as you finish saying that you'll be like okay so but it's a co-worker sunday at my church and so i was wondering if you wanted to come to church with me they're watching you they're seeing how you show love and you think they're gonna come here you you think they want to come here because don't nobody here show love because they watching how you are what lessons are you teaching people about how to show love so in my house growing up not only did we learn about love mercy was also a foundational principle in our house yahoo mercy praise jesus for mercy okay mercy is compassion shown to an offender or to one who is subject to one's power mercy is not beating your son when he starts your standard shift truck after you told him not to but he did it anyway and now the truck that was in the driveway is now sitting in the garage with the garage door laying on top of it because and instead of beating your son you just pull him out the truck and you start trying to figure out how you gonna get the garage fixed and how you gonna get your truck that's mercy mercy is not receiving the just punishment for your actions right i can tell you some stories about mercy i can tell you some stories about mercy coming from my parents mercy is okay so i'm going to turn this way because i don't want to look at them when i mercy is throwing a party when your parents are at work they're hard paying you know they hard-working jobs where they earn money to pay for the house that you're throwing this party in that they don't know about and then you get drunk at this party at their house with all these other underage people there and then you go to school drunk and then because you smart enough to go to school drunk you get suspended and then you get kicked off the volleyball team and your mama gotta leave her hard paying job to come get you from school because you drunk and you can't drive your car and you don't even know how your car got to school in the first place so now they also got she got to call him in dallas because they got to figure out how to get a car from school to the house so mercy is not strangling your daughter because she was dumb that's mercy mercy is not receiving the just punishment for your actions mercy so right now you're giving yourself a pat on the back right because you're thinking about all the times that you showed your children mercy because i don't show mine a lot of mercy now alyssa is saying i ain't done nothing because alyssa is that kid that thinks she's perfect but um you're thinking about all the times that you've shown children mercy but i have a question for you y'all see i like to ask questions right because i like to make you think how is your mercy towards others others that don't look like you others that aren't on the same economic level as you how's your mercy towards others that have wronged you how's your mercy towards others who have wronged the people you love you know how i'ma stop talking to you because you did something to hurt my best friend and so now i i don't want nothing to do with you how is your mercy towards others that have wronged people others that have messed up more than once doing the same thing in the church in leadership do you have mercy for those do you feel like some people are deserving of mercy and some aren't do you struggle to show mercy to others and as you're thinking about that take that take the uh children out of it because for some reason it's so easy it's like second nature to give mercy to children you know like when you find the kid when a kid is pooping on themselves they never just do it out in public they always go stand in the corner and do it and we show mercy every time and they've done it so many times and every time we pick them up we take them over we lay them down and as we're cleaning them we're smiling at them and we talking to them and we loving on them because we're showing their mercy why do you struggle to give mercy to adults why do we struggle to give mercy when we so easily accept it because i have no problem you have no problem accepting mercy so why do we struggle to give it when we so easily accept it matthew 5 and 7 jesus says blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy blessed it's one thing for god to give mercy but it's something else when he says you're blessed it is something else when god speaks well of you blessed are the merciful what that means is give mercy even when you don't think they deserve it because guess what you didn't deserve it mark give mercy even when you don't think they've earned it because guess what you hadn't earned it your job didn't uh is not why you get mercy there is nothing about you that says i deserve mercy give mercy even when you don't feel it's a praise appreciated because guess what you don't always appreciate the magnitude of god's mercy because if we really and truly and deeply appreciated the magnitude of god's mercy we wouldn't find ourselves doing the same things over and over again because i realized that god's mercy was so big and he did not give me the just punishment he didn't give me what i deserve he gave me freedom and so i'm gonna love people like he did and i'm gonna show mercy but if i don't appreciate that mercy i struggle to show mercy so not only did we learn about love and mercy we were taught about grace in my house yeah i'm grateful for the things that we were taught so grace grace that it doesn't matter what you do grace it doesn't matter how you do it grace is available now mercy is not receiving that just punishment but grace just is grace is a choice you can choose to give grace in spite of whatever right you can choose to give grace and this is the thing the ability to give grace doesn't come from each other it comes from above when stacey was talking about grace i was like yes because it's the grace that god gives and so many of us are trying to show grace and give grace but the problem is we're trying to do it on this level and god is like no this grace comes from above so you know the bible says that what is uh loose in on earth will be loosed in heaven and what is bound on earth will be bound in heaven we're trying to do something on the earth realm but it's not supposed to happen here right it's supposed to happen there and so we're taking scriptures like that what's and i'm saying well you know i'm going to loose this grace on the earth realm because then it's going to be loose in heaven no you have it backwards in this case it doesn't happen here it happens there verse 1 of our text you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus so the apostle paul is telling timothy that to withstand everything that life is going to bring his way he has to know where his help comes from if you've been living any length of time and you can understand then you know life is not all rainbows and roses and things are going to come your way and so paul is telling him you therefore my son you therefore my daughter you there for my child be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus you have to know that things are going to come your way so throughout the chapter paul goes on to tell timothy about the hardships he will face he he doesn't paint a picture like everything is gonna be okay he's honest with timothy and he tells him all the things that he's going to uh come that's going to come up against him and paul knows because paul has dealt with a lot of those things people have turned though they're back on paul kind of like christ people turn their back on him but you know that's whole something else so okay he's clear to timothy he makes it plain that if you recognize where your strength comes from if you recognize that your strength is in the grace that you give and receive through jesus then you can withstand anything and so what happens is we are sitting here in life and we are going through trials and we're having struggles and we don't recognize where our grace comes from we're talking to people trying to get people to give us grace but that's not where your grace comes from so grace it is a choice to give grace right so do you struggle with giving grace because um how i want to put this okay you waiting on the repentance tour right so you can't show grace because you're waiting on the repentance tour you're waiting on the young lady to come down in front of the church and apologize for getting pregnant and she's not married so you can't show grace because you haven't been a part of the repentance tour you're waiting on uh you waiting on the deacon to come down before the church and apologize for uh for his gambling addiction or and you can't forgive him because you've heard about these things you can't forgive him because you're waiting on a repentance tour but this is the thing are they accountable to you are you in leadership over them what about you makes you think you deserve to be a seat on the repentance tour and because you are not in accountability i mean they're not accountable to you i promise you the people they are accountable to they've gone to them and they've talked to them and they've gone through a restoration process but you stand up and can't hear nothing they say and can't show grace because you didn't uh see the repentance tour and the thing is you're missing out on so much because this is the thing the grace that you need to give these people you trying to do it in your own power in your own might but it doesn't come from here it comes from above your strength is in the grace that receives and gives through jesus amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me i once was lost but now i'm found was blind but now i see through many dangers talls and snares i have you have already come towards grace what's grace that brought me that brought you safe thus far and grace is gonna leave you lead us home listen to me grace grace amazing grace precious grace life-giving grace is the foundation of everything that you and i are so even though we grew up in two different houses what we have in common is that grace is the foundation of everything that every believer in christ is if you don't have this grace thing figured out then you need to go back and start over you need to go talk to jesus you need to get in your closet you need to find out why i can't show grace but i definitely want people to give it to me so even in struggle even in embarrassment even in the depths of darkness you got to know that there is a sense of joy and security because we know i know that god's grace is sufficient even in my depression god's grace is sufficient even in my unhappiness god's grace is sufficient even in my pregnancy or unplanned pregnancy god's grace is sufficient can i tell you even in my adultery god's grace is sufficient even in my lying god's grace is sufficient yeah even in my homosexuality god's grace is sufficient it's sufficient it's sufficient even when i got caught on a camera cussing the people out because they fixed my order on god's grace is sufficient god's grace is sufficient enough to love you out of whatever mess he pulled you out of whatever mess he found you in whatever mess god's grace is sufficient enough for it it's sufficient enough to not only pull you out of it but it's sufficient enough to love you out of it and if you know that god's grace is sufficient enough to love you out of it and to pull you out of it why don't you think god's grace is sufficient enough to pull somebody else out of theirs why do we walk around here with one standard for us but we don't have the same standard for somebody else because i'm looking at you saying he don't even deserve that i didn't deserve it either but god gave it to me god's grace is sufficient and when we say god's grace is sufficient when the bible says that he's saying it covers a multitude of sin a multitude can y'all count a multitude you okay and so you're sitting up trying to count okay well now god's love don't cover that but it does and you send them okay well now god's love but it does no well god's love can come but it does god's love and his grace is sufficient and it covers all of it so stop sitting around waiting on a repentance tour you don't have a seat you don't drive the bus it's not for you your leaders know what the repentance was your leaders are a part of the restoration process so you church member you choir member you usher you deacon boy sit back and know that your leaders have worked it out with god and they've talked to the person that has fallen they've talked to the person that has struggled they've talked to and not only have they talked to them they've counseled them and they've prayed with them and they've molded them and they've let god transform them and do a work and they are able to stand today because they went through repentance not apologizing but repentance and this is the thing about true repentance no timetable on it there's no timetable on true repentance and so you sitting up mad because you struggling because you feel like god hasn't forgiven you for something you did 30 years ago and i'm sitting over here good and i'm just happy go lucky skipping around over something i did two weeks ago because i truly repented and i accepted god's forgiveness but the thing is you hold you holding on to that god forgave you you just won't let go there is no timetable on repentance so listen i'm done but i'ma tell you this paul taught us that we have to take what we learned and teach others it is not for you to hold on to it is not for you to learn it and just keep it right here because you want to you know you want to be the smartest one in the room and you want to know more about the bible than anybody else no guys paul says we have to take what we've learned and teach others so what lessons are you teaching and remember your life will teach many more sermons than your lips ever will so with your life what lessons are you teaching are you teaching people how to be hateful are you teaching people how to gossip are you teaching people unforgiveness are you teaching people grace are you teaching them mercy are you teaching people love are you teaching people accountability are you teaching people how to hold each other up how to support people what is your life teaching people are you teaching people how to live check to check not because you can't afford anything but just because you don't budget your money so you just fit it however you choose to what is your life teaching people one more story and then i'm done so i shared what my dad taught me about love and mercy when my parents taught me about love and mercy as a child but i want to share with you what he taught me about grace as an adult because you know you gotta get some fillers in there right you gotta go back for a real so what you got as a child you gotta get some more so 20 years ago maybe i don't know it wasn't even that long it was a long time ago but i was an adult and i did something that was so bad so i thought it was so disrespectful which it was but i did something that was just so bad that i just knew i couldn't come back from it and you know they say pastor's kids are the worst like i think i was the pastor's kids that actively tried to embody that that pastor's kingdom was the worst so i did something that was so bad that i knew i couldn't come back from it and not only did i think i couldn't come back from it i didn't think my parents could come back from it because y'all know people will hold the children against the parents even though i was grown even though i made my own decisions i knew that they would pay the penalty for what i did and not only would they pay the penalty for what i did i felt like the church would pay the penalty for my choices so i decided that the only thing that can happen is that i need to pack my baby up and i need to leave because if i'm not here then there is a chance that they can take this situation and they can work themselves out because what i did was so bad and it was so broken and this is the thing i didn't just do it to me i did it to other people and so it wasn't something that we could hide or we could you know i could keep over here no i heard i involved other people in what i did and so now people making phone calls not because they're gossiping because i'm hurting so many people my actions hurt so many people and so i knew i had to leave so i packed my baby up and i left and he was at work that she was at work and i was living with them at the time so i left a message on the answering machine and i said hey i know y'all heard what i did and i know y'all disappointed in me and i'm disappointed in myself and so i'm going to take miles and i'm going to leave because i don't want y'all to keep paying the penalty for my sins and for the things that i'm doing and when i get settled i will call you and let y'all know where i am because for me running away was a way to handle it not facing up to what i did not owning what i did was the way to handle it so i took miles and we left and it was later on that evening and i don't know if my daddy made it home from work or if my mama made it home and told him about the message i don't know but my phone started reading me that evening and it was my daddy and of course i'm not gonna answer because i know you calling to fuss at me i know you're calling to tell me how disappointed me you are i know you're calling to tell me how angry you are and how you can't believe that i did this that i wasn't smarter than this that i was like i know this is what he's calling me for right so i didn't answer him and then he called me right back and i still didn't answer because i know he doesn't like me because of what i did i know he's only calling me because he feels obligated to call me but he doesn't want me at his house so i didn't answer and he called back and i'm still not answering because i know he's just gonna tell me that good shepherd is better off without me i know he's gonna tell me that i just can't get this thing figured out i know he's i know he's only calling me because he loves his grandson but he can do without me these are things that i know right so i don't answer him he calls back so at this point is the disappointment of what i think he's going to say greater than the fear of not answering my dad's phone call again because listen to me at a certain point you come to yourself and you like me if he called me one more time and i don't answer this phone i don't know what's going to happen and i'm grown y'all but i know he don't call me one too many times so now i answer the phone and i answer the phone and you [Music] he's a big teddy bear today night okay [Applause] yeah i told y'all i was that one that tested him right he went looking for somebody behind me one night but anyway back to what i'm supposed to be talking about so i answered the phone and i'm i have i have braced myself for everything that's about to come and he says get that baby and come home yeah i remember it just like it was yesterday and all of a sudden this bracing that i did to get myself ready is gone and now the tears are just flowing and i'm saying but daddy i just don't know and he says get that baby and come home but daddy i just get that baby and come home so i said okay and i go pack up my baby and i pack up my stuff and i'm just crying and uh and i'm driving back home and i'm still preparing myself because i know oh he didn't go off on my phone so when i get to his house that's when i'm gonna get it that's when he's gonna break me down that's when he's gonna discipline me i'm grown afraid of my dad you know now y'all new school kids y'all got something twisted and y'all but y'all scared of y'all parents but anyway so i make it to the house and i'm still crying and you know i just i don't even know what's about to happen and my dad is standing outside waiting on me in a white button-down shirt and some black slacks things that have impact you remember and i pulled into the driveway he opened the door he got my bags he got miles and he said hey and i was like hey [Applause] the first time we had a conversation about it was maybe five or six years ago sitting in that office back there i came to see him one day at work and i had been sharing it with my husband and i was telling my husband why i'm such a daddy's girl as an adult why i go so hard for my daddy as an adult and my husband asked me have you ever shared that with him have you ever told him the impact that that had on you and so i came up here to tell him and i was sharing it with him and do you know what he said okay [Applause] because the grace that he gave me meant that he didn't want to talk about it he didn't need to talk about the details he didn't need to talk about how disappointed he was he didn't need to talk about any of that all he needed me to know is that he had me and i had a home to come back to and he was gonna support me and he was gonna love me and before he was my pastor he was my daddy and i'm saying to you today we need to display the grace that lives my father your your pastor he's an amazing teacher my mother they're amazing teachers they love always they show mercy always they give grace they choose grace always learn from them what they're doing is not just for them what they exhibit is not just for their children they're teaching us and they're teaching you and i because we are supposed to go out and teach someone else what you're learning in this house should not stay in this house it's supposed to go outside of this house and multiply and because you multiply and make disciples then they're gonna take it and we multiply again and make more disciples and we multiply again and make more disciples so listen when you really and truly embrace the strength to truly love people i have to stop saying i don't like people because i used to say that all the time and i had to learn god is not pleased when every time i don't like his people so when you really embrace that the strength to truly love people to show mercy and to give grace comes from you will gain a peace that cannot be understood that cannot be explained and that peace is worth every heartache you ever went through that peace is worth every struggle you ever went through that piece is worth every trial you ever went through because you know had it not been for those things and the grace of god on my side where would i be had it not been for a father who knew i didn't need to be torn down because i was tearing my own self down where would i be if it had not been for a father who didn't need me to make a repentance to her who knew my heart and who knew i was talking to jesus where would i be nobody showed me grace where would i be if nobody showed you grace if nobody loved you if nobody gave you mercy where would you be and if you can just think in your mind not about the things that we saw but about the things that you know that you did and the fact that god covered you because see some people think they know my story because of what they saw but that's like point zero zero zero five percent of my story you don't know everything that god brought me out of and everything that god took and began to mold it and make it watch this for a ministry moment because god will take it and it'll become a ministry moment when you're healed from it so if nobody showed you grace where would you be so as you go about your week this week i want you to really rehearse that when you find yourself talking to that person that typically you don't like to deal with think about what if nobody showed you grace when you find yourself hearing somebody gossiping about what somebody else did what if nobody showed you love and when you think about what that would be like i want you to show love show grace show mercy and everything that you do in everything that you are and can i tell you something if you can get the grace part down and know that it comes from above everything else is easy it's easy to love god when i recognize that my grace comes from him it's easy to love people when i recognize that my grace comes from him and i stop trying and i stop worrying about what other people doing because i got enough crap of my own that i'm trying to figure out and i'm trying to make sure i stay right and i'm trying to figure out so i'm not going to not give grace i'm not going to not show mercy i'm not going to not love people grace lives grace is alive and well there is a grace worth living your life and showing amen amen come on and put your hands together for grace let's bless god for grace this morning [Applause] [Music] yes i've been through too much not to worship him i've been through too much not to lift my hands and give him glory i've been through too much not to bow before him and give it over to him i've been through too much you've been through too much not to show grace you've been through too much i've been through too much [Music] to worship him i've been through too much i've been to the storm and rain and i'm gonna give him glory [Music] come on just think back over your life [Music] i've been broken [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] i've been through too much [Music] [Music] [Music] come on let's give the lord some praise in this holy place what a word what a word what a word i've been through too much anybody anybody i'm trying to figure what they're calling now lady tony minister tony she said a word this morning she gave us all something to think on grace mercy repentance i've been through too much hallelujah you can be seated amen man i i sat there and she took me way back and uh you know i tell y'all they got me this time i uh i've been saying to my wife all week i said why is antoine gonna preach three sermons because when i preach three it works on me and i sat there and i just figured tony was here cause y'all was celebrating the birthday and uh i knew antoine should have been walking through that door and so i said well antoine's not here well you know i'm gonna preach if he don't show up amen and uh so anyway this was a great birthday surprise on today amen i didn't i didn't get the opportunity i have not had the opportunity to actually hear her minister uh the wife went but i had to stay here that's what happened you're a pastor and you have daughters or sons that are married into ministry but i want to thank her great job great job i want to thank the trinity harvard's family for supporting her on today amen and you know uh me and my family we are open book and i believe that you help people by exposing yourself and so many times ministers don't like to get up and say what they was but there was a young man that came to our church and he says i want to be appalling but i'm just mixed up and all of y'all are so great and i stopped him i said no no no no we look great but we're all struggling just like you and so i i throw my family out and people may not know it that's why i always bought my kids cars me and my wife because i always threw them out to the membership because i wanted the membership to know that my children are human it they're human they make the same mistakes that yours make but because i'm the pastor and that's the first lady we're held everybody hold us like i can't believe they did that well yes they got the same stuff in them but if you keep them before the law that's that's why when they messed up there's some things i expect you know i wake up every morning knowing that the devil got my name written on me and that he's gonna come after me i don't get up thinking you know today just gonna be such a great day it's going to be a great day but i have to have the expectations to know that if i'm belonging to the lord that the devil got vision on me and so i want to thank her dynamic message uh she was the toughest one she's telling you the truth she was tough she was tough she was tough she was tough but she was lovable i put her out of my truck she was probably about 12 years old and uh we separated our children my wife had misha on her car so misha was always with her we didn't have her two kids in and my truck said my tony and tony would sit up under me like she was my girlfriend and she just started growing and she stole her balloon and she cried but i had to put out the truck and i missed her because we always drove two cars misha and my wife they hung out me and tony hung out but i realized that she was a girl she wasn't a boy and at some point i had to make her believe she was a girl and not a boy you know and that daddy was gonna love her anyway even though she wasn't sitting up under me amen and so i just thank her for the word on today i would i wasn't getting up uh and i want to thank you for what you are doing today now i need you to put the icing on the cake for me at three o'clock hey man i need your support you know that me and my wife are getting ready to get on the highway we need your prayers those of you that wasn't here i told you we don't drive at night and so we got to be somewhere in the morning and so i'm leading the good shepherd family to support pastor antoine uh this afternoon at the three o'clock highway man i need you to do that for me i need to get a good word a good report and know that we're going to go and show them what goes on on this corner so again let me say thank you for everyone i want to thank those that have already given you a gift uh and what have you and uh so at this time uh you know where your heart is amen it may be a little untraditional to do an invitation but you know where your heart is and you can always die five four two four four and do connect one and connect in with the ministry we would love to have you but this is just the way the lord is leading me amen amen and so i want to thank each one of you for the gift that you've already given those that are going to give uh thank you and at this time we're going to prepare to give our offertorial offering back to the lord and so minister sonja collier is going to come and lead us into a time of giving amen amen amen gee stop minister favorite i would love to tell you who i thought was their favorite but as of today you stand on that you're going gonna have me go in and do an apology to one of my co-workers because my voice can come off so abrasive when i want to be real but i sent the email and one of my leadership said ms conyer don't you think this one sentence seems to come off a little abrasive i said no that was real we all hit a deadline and she said can i read it to you and i want you just to evaluate it for me and then on monday can we meet again thank you because that meeting i am going to apologize to her that one sentence in my mind it was real we all had the same deadline but it might not have been my place to have told her in that way because i thought if i had told her with this voice it would have sounded different but it sounded the same way in that email so minister thank you so much this was a powerful word today i don't know about you but it touched me in so many different ways we have so much love here at g-stop i saw it in the old sanctuary when when first lady grabbed me and i have ever since when she said minister conyer you're talking to us right there in that office she said you're talking but have you accepted your calling go back home first lady said it and talk to him more and i have accepted his calling it's been a challenging moment but thank you first lady and pastor for your love happy birthday and i didn't come up here to do all of that i'm not here to preach or anything like that you've done all you needed to do for the day if y'all could just stand if you have not received an envelope for of giving today and please don't forget those of us that have our obligations to giving for pastor um and the silver bucket is also for giving to pastor as well today okay let's go before god oh gracious god we thank you for your grace and mercy father god we thank you for your love and father god we thank you for this opportunity to be able to walk in and hear your word today a word that we can carry in through our lifespan dear god be able to walk into purpose with this word father god we just thank you father god now father god we thank you for finances dear god we just thank you for those that are able to give today and those that are unable to give to god we ask that you continue to give them the knowledge to know how we ask that you can give give us the uh the ability to take back some things that's not about you so we're able to do what you ask of us in our giving father again father we thank you we love you and these things we ask in our prayer amen all right let's put our seeds into flight i'm giving my seed in the name of the father the son and the holy ghost i'm believing you god for increasing in my finance my health and my life i'm believing in you god for a spiritual breakthrough for money in the bank for checks in the mail to whom much is given much is required thank you okay if you can have a seed and please follow the urchins [Music] i trust you lord [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] i'll trust you lord i'm living over [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] i'm walking [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] money [Music] baby [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] you

Channel: Gstop Main Campus

Views: 95

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: #gstop, #iamgstop, #goodshepherd, #goodshepherdtempleofpraise

Id: lWNPdC11MGw

Length: 118min 46sec (7126 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021