Encased in Grace Part 1-4 - Beth Moore

now where were we Romans chapter five I want to read verses 1 & 2 to you now listen if these happen to be familiar words I pray that you will not let them fall on you with such a familiarity that they lose their edge if you're brand new to the scriptures I want you to hear this kind of good news that says this in Romans 5 verses 1 & 2 therefore by say therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God I've got to read that to you again out of verse 2 through him our Lord Jesus Christ we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand you and I are going to talk all through this series a two-part series that will take us a number of weeks to go through together we are going to take apart what it means to stand in grace how deep are you in the doctrine of grace because grace is what puts the good in the news anybody know what I'm talking about and grace has a name and and the name of grace is Jesus Jesus the Christ Jesus the Savior Jesus the Redeemer I have a really really good friend that's that's super funny and she was telling me the other day that when she went in here recently if you'll just you gentlemen will forgive me for using this kind of a personal term about surgery but it is a natural thing she went into surgery I saw her surgeon before before they put her under and and she was having to have a hysterectomy and she said I just wonder if while we're there I've got some wisdom teeth that need out and he really did not feel that that was going to be doable but told her he could refer her to others that might but it was so funny to me to think that we think that in that one fell swoop we can have our solution but you know something you do have that with grace you do have it the panacea you do you do and I do have the solution to every ill the strength in every weakness this is what we have by Jesus Christ access by faith into this grace in which we stand now we throw that word around and Christian community the word grace around like we would say bless you when someone sneezes grace grace grace grace but do we begin to grasp what it means I want to give you just one definition of it out of the complete board study dictionary the New Testament it's going to be I'm fairly lengthy so if you're taking down any kind of notes just put down some key words I'll try to emphasize what I think we're really driving at in this particular session grace it's Karis in the Greek and it means particularly that which causes joy I want everybody to say that which causes joy pleasure gratification favor acceptance for kindness granted or desired a benefit thanks gratitude the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God two men finding listen to this carefully it's only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the giver unearned and unmerited favor I love this part of it it changes the individual to a new creature without destroying his individuality do you love that this grace has this way of coming and totally transforming us but yet we retain our individuality grace is not just meant to be a condition grace is a condition that is meant to elicit a reaction an emotion if we've got grace one way we would know if we're getting the doctrine or not is how happy are we about believing in Jesus Christ as Savior because we get the doctrine of grace to the degree that we are filled with joy in Christ we have very little joy we have very little grasp of this grace that we have received because this grace thing is supposed to cause an outbreak of joy that's part of the characteristic of this thing we're calling grace what the Word of God tells us is this life-changing access that we have because of Jesus Christ I don't just want us to study this particular doctrine I am praying that something happens to us in these weeks of study together that we have an outbreak of it in our lives a revival if you've never come to know Jesus this way on Awakening that takes place in our bones that's what I'm talking about it's not just something we can study on a page it is something actualized between us and Jesus that becomes our living reality that is what I'm hoping we're going to see that's a huge driving concept in our Christian faith you would find it for instance in the NIV the word grace showing up 100 thirty-one times add to it words like gracious and graciously another 46 times if you ran a word search on the word grace you would almost decide that it's a New Testament term and that the Old Testament was nothing but law but that is not true the law was given in the Old Testament but grace is called by a different name it's used several times by that name in the Old Testament but more often than not the word favor is used instead which in the Old Testament in the NIV shows up 105 times yes the 113 times so this is a grace streak starting from beginning to end of Scripture seeing the favor that God has on people flawed broken people just like us I want you to see with me some verses this is where our concept is going to come together and land we're going to start building on it out of Romans chapter 6 I want to read verses 1 through 6 to you Romans 6 1 through 6 what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life verse 5 for if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his we know that our old self this is very important this is going to drive part of our series we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would these two words will be very important no longer be enslaved to sin so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin throughout this series we're going to build a series of five points together and it all begins right here with number 1 some things and our lives need to hear the words no longer amen somebody need to get a message of no longer somewhere into their lives going you know what you have no more authority over me I am giving you something that you do not have the power to exercise over me by Christ I am free from being enslaved to sin and some things in our lives could really really take a very loud no longer some I say no longer out loud and I'm saying in such a way that's got conviction I want you to say on the other side of that screen say it where it's got conviction no longer I stay it like this I'm about to say no longer to you because we're will get some attitude here because is there a side of you that just will not take no for an answer I'm just asking you that because it's imposing an authority over you a dominion over you that it does not have the right to exercise and we're about to get mad about it amen we're about to get indignant about we've got some bitterness that needs to hear a shout of no longer we got some fear just anybody's fear I mean is it enough listening is live with fear 60 70 years who's lived with insecurity for 25 years some things in our lives sexual addictions self-destructive behavior substance addictions are all our jealousies our in effectiveness are our spiritual and relational paralysis we got some things in our lives that need to hear the words no longer because we were told in the scripture they no longer get to have dominion over us and either something is wrong on the page or something is wrong in my thinking when I as a believer in Christ have the Holy Spirit living in me and I am completely overrun by Dominion sins something is up something is up I wonder for anybody else I have so been there in the course of my life has it just gone on too long anybody just going on too long in fact it can go on so long that we decide I'm just going to give way to it like I've just given up because this is the way it's going to be and I'm just going to give in to it because it's just gone on way too long somebody say out loud this is going on way too long going on way way too long we're sick of it but we do not know how to get victory over it anybody tried everything you can think of and it still hasn't worked I'm going to beg you to see in the scriptures that the key the power is the grace of God we've got to get a mentality that we live in the freedom and the unmerited favor of the grace of God the very thing our mothers would never have wanted us to know because they would have thought it would give us license to sin is exactly what we need to know so that we can take authority over that sin is anybody just stepping in that with me because listen we need an outbreak a freeing grace it's already been given to us it's got to take up residency in our thinking now I want to read Romans 6 6 through 14 to you we went all the way to 6 but I want to let it overlap just that one verse and then read through to verse 14 listen to this we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer by say no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been set free from sin now if we have died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again death no longer has dominion over him somebody wants to say amen to that for the death he died he died to sin once for all but the life he lives he lives to God so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus verse well let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey it's passions do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness verse 14 for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace I'm going to say that again verse 14 the heart of everything we're studying together for sin will not have dominion over you since you are not under law you are under grace I want everybody to look at those words you are not under law but you are under grace until that gets down into our thick skulls down into our everyday thinking not just our Sunday thinking not just our morning thinking where it becomes how we habitually think that it is grace that is key to be being free from the slavery to sin until that takes up residency we are going to be caught in Dominion sin for the rest of our lives needlessly we are in Christ it can exercise no authority over us we are giving authority to something that has no right to exercise it and we're about to take it back we've looked at number one some things in our lives need to hear the words no longer number two is this a life no longer enslaved cannot be lived under the law I hope to prove to you it's a biblical impossibility a life no longer enslaved cannot be lived under the law see because there are so many of us that think the way I'm going to get my behavior under control is I just have to live by the law now I hope somebody's so new with us to this whole terminology that you're needing me to say to you that we're not talking about the laws of our government this is not talking about I'm getting to go any speed we want to on the freeway although you could not swear that by Houston but business this is about the law of Moses or even the legalism we put upon ourselves that we think our II to good behavior is to follow a lot of laws and a lot of rules that the more I say no no no no no no no no to myself then the freer I'm going to be but the Bible presents that in the book of Romans and in many other places that it will be exactly the thing that gets us ensnared to Dominion sin is that we stay in a mentality under the law and we continually are defeated by because we cannot master the law here's Beth and here's what I want you to picture I want you to have two headings above us and I'll try to remind you of this continually through our series two headings over us that are like doorways before us like door frames I want you to picture them and this one says law would you just picture with me l a W here we got law over this doorway and then we've got our keyword right over here and our keyword is what we got the word grace right over this doorway and you and I are going to try to get a picture in our minds which place are we standing I want us to get very very literal with ourselves ask ourselves some very hard questions what am i standing under because I don't know what this says to you but I have found myself going back and forth between the two since until I am so dizzy with it in my spiritual life I don't know what to do where are you standing under what a heading I love how it says in Romans chapter 5 this grace in which we stand and then I love how it says in this portion of Romans that we are standing under grace that means it's under our feet and it's over our heads we are encased in grace anybody getting that with me because I want to be encased in grace when Jesus Christ became our Savior we became encased in grace now I've got a the sweetest Lebanese friend back in Houston and he's got the most brilliant accent I wish that I could do it properly for you because the story would be so much better if I can actually say it the way he says it but he loves love's love's America you know and so he cannot talk enough about it so every time I'm around him he just has to tell me how wonderful this country is and it is and I thank God for it but he especially thinks it is he thinks about all he talks about the freedom of it the education for his kids all of those things that he just cannot say enough about living here but he ends it by saying every time he means to say the way we would see it and how about that he says instead and so what he doesn't over it's just delightful it's just delightful he said I got my pen out the last time I was with him and he left me for a few minutes and I just jotted it down and this is all Matata quote that she said I came over to find a life for my family seven years ago and now my wife and children are here my children are happy and safe and are in school in my wife has a job and so what perfect perfect see that is my fear about our topic of grace have we heard it so much that it's just and so what we're encased by grace and so what will I tell you so what this is our freedom here this is our joy here this is taking back what is ours by birthright in Jesus Christ that he died to give us don't you know how often he stands over us and says I really honestly I went through a lot for as little as you're taking me up on I mean listen this was a lot a lot of pain a lot of suffering my father had turned his face I've been through a lot I gave up my life for this for you to take me up on four inches of what I died to give you grace grace now I got to tell you God can use all sorts of things to be a catalyst for a message that he lays on any communicators heart but for me it comes in all sorts of different ways this one was very accidental this particular subject matter it came because of something I threw out on Twitter and I want to just read you a little bit of the correspondence this is how it went because I realized a nerve had been hit and I found it very intriguing it was one of those moments where you just go I thought it was just me anybody anybody I mean I thought this was just me this is what I threw out there anybody else at times need God to help you sort out the difference between being obedient in an unclear area and being just plain neurotic anybody how would you respond to that well you know I just saw just you know because I've called myself a neurotic a thousand times and so I just thought I'll just pitch that out there because I'm feeling I'm trying to figure out God's will on this and I'm feeling really really neurotic about it and I can't figure out is this God or is this me being neurotic here and I watched it hit that nerve and I started seeing one response after my feet just started going crazy I thought okay very very very interesting so I'm going to push it so I pushed it two more times to see what would happen here was the next one okay I said per last tweet one example assuming that in every situation bar none obedience to God is choosing the hardest of all possible options so here's what I'm asking this is this is part of what I would call neurotic in every situation do we assume that obedience to God is choosing the hardest of all possible options overwhelmingly yes yes if it's a B C or D whatever is the hardest that's going to be God's will okay this is getting interesting this is getting so I push it because I thought maybe I don't I'm not understanding them maybe I'm not making it clear so I say back to him a third time good discussion I say yes obeying is often the hard thing but is that the way we automatically assume what the will of God is whatever is hardest overwhelmingly yes whatever is hardest has to be the will of God I mean a few along the feed had something else to say but overwhelmingly I thought okay this is very interesting it was one of those moments when I realized that I was not the only weirdo in Christianity anybody got this with me now listen I don't know what other people out there you could look up on a spiritual neurotic out there on the internet and get all sorts of things I suppose but I'm going to talk to you about what I can my own experience with what I will call spiritual neuroses so I'm not what I'm not calling it the same thing that anybody else may be calling it out there I'm just tagging it with what has been my experience I'm coming to own it with you to see if maybe some other people have the same neurosis as I have had spiritually because here's what's happened because I flip flop like a fish on the beach between the two I've just come to find maybe I'm the only one but does anybody else live part of their time under the heading of grace and then part of their time under the heading of law and you just keep going back and forth and back and forth between the two until you're so dizzy that you become a spiritual neurotic that's what I'm talking about because here's the thing I I grew up in a wonderful denomination where we were told how to be saved I knew how to be saved I knew from the time I was a child that I was saved by grace so I've not gotten confused over that now lots of my friends do get confused over that they've really got that the legalism even caught up in their salvation that's not been my confusion but the rest of my life I put under the law I was saved by grace but I live by the law anybody I was saved over here but I live the rest of my life over here certainly just hang with me here for a minute anybody that does anything to serve Jesus see if you can relate to this I may have put my salvation over here under a grace but I always always put the ministry under the law without a doubt always and here's the reason I've done a lot of thinking to try to sort this out in my mind here's why I think that I've done it in my younger years I used up I believed 80% of the grace God had for me early on that y'all that is just dreadful cuz you figure you've got like a hundred units well you know by the time I was 25 I was down to five units you know I'm sorry I wish it had been different but that is just how my life was and it was like I've got the road what homie my husband would always go I hope we grow old together I'm thinking not me just think just think what this will be like because I've only got five units of grace for the rest of my life and I'm using them quickly and so you know I just like constantly like me he's gonna be sorry he called me he's gonna eat I mean I can even on occasion I'm sorry this is this is very disconcerting and disappointing to y'all I know but I mean on occasion I just go he must hate me I mean does anyone else ever own that you think occasionally I know God hates me I know God makes me he's so sorry right now God cannot even look God is what God is rolling his eyes at me God not just other people God is rolling his eyes at me but I can get all in this trap now let me give you a working definition I found this in merriam-webster of course this is I wanted to define it you're getting your PIN out when I tell you what I bet there's it fun your thing oh I don't need to write that down neurosis I'm about to define for you neurosis to see if we can find ourselves in this definition a mental and emotional disorder that affects only part of the personality is accompanied by a less distorted perception of reality than in a psychosis listen I was just glad to not have a sucker Brian God God does not result in disturbance of the use of language I love that part I thought I felt like it had spiritual um ramifications because I can still talk it girl I could come say this alright to you I know how to say it I don't have to bring this message do I know how to say the right thing as if I believe it I'm just being honest with you honest with you if we can just take a little honesty this is what I've dealt with I can get the words right but I'm to me the heart behind it they cannot decide if you were under grace or you were under the law says does not result in disturbance of the use of language and is accompanied by various physical physiological and mental disturbances and it's got in parentheses as visceral symptoms anxieties or phobias anybody anybody got some just saying anxieties and I wouldn't want to talk about here because we're making it into a spiritual metaphor then our neurosis um takes a form in our spiritual lives of being nail biters nail biters in our faith anybody else snail biters one reason why I think that that it goes on as long as it does is because it's not necessarily a psychosis it seems more like us it's just the way we've always thought we just live under these two things just jumping back and forth continually between the two we still see ourselves we've been saved by grace but still see ourselves over here under the law this is how we got say but this is how we have to live and all of this here we are standing under a covenant of contradictions and it is making us spiritually crazy a covenant of contradictions because your covenant with the law is contradicting your salvation in Christ I'm not the only neurotic I don't think I'm not the only one jumping between the law and grace continually putting one part of my life under one getting the other part of my life under the other and in all of this I'm so splintered and scattered where is the peace where is the peace where is the peace this is going to test our legalism anybody test our legalism number one true or false I tend to assume that the hardest option is probably the godliest in other words the obedient way is probably the harder of the two ways true or false number two I rarely ask forgiveness only once for any significant transgression even if I truly repented the first time and by significant transgression I'm even going to include like gossip sharp words to someone a big demonstration of Pride and on and so forth from there so I rarely asked forgiveness only once for any significant transgression even if I truly repented the first time would that be true or would it be false maybe I could just stayed home and had this with the mirror and I cannot tell you how we would have done on this test number three I tend not to feel back in God's good graces right away after repentance true or false I tend not to feel back in God's good graces right away after repentance you might know what I'm talking about like it's just wow it's going to take a few days I need to punish myself a little more than this that ties right into number four number four is this I catch myself wanting to pay penance after feeling like I've really messed up a penance is defined here as acts done to make up for sin so number four I catch myself wanting to pay penance after feeling like I've really messed up true or false on number four number five I think God loves me but in spite of me and not because I'm lovable true or false number six I'm going to get you here truth be told Jesus parable about the workers who get paid equal wages regardless of how long or short of time they work seems a bit disconcerting true or false you feel some real company in this one because that was overwhelmingly and all the people I've tested that was the big team number seven I deal with a fair amount of anxiety in my spiritual life you just have a lot of anxiety and your spiritual life true or false number eight I struggle with considerable self condemnation true or false number nine I find it easier to tell others how much God loves them than to believe it for myself true or false this is getting ugly in it just kidding right down ugly number ten I feel I must always bear up with people who have wronged me over and over true or false I always have to bear up number eleven I tend to feel guilty about some of the good things in my life true or false that got a rousing yes in this room I don't know how y'all are doing on the other side of the screen I want to hear from you about it though I tend to feel guilty about some of the good things in my life true or false number twelve and then the bonus I know God loves me but I think I often disappoint him oh yeah true or false I love the bonus question Romans 14:17 says for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit preciousness peace and joy however you would not know that from being around me true or false we know that that's truly I mean that's the kingdom of God righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit but probably they wouldn't know it from being around me true or false now during our our series a lot of these true false statements will come to light we'll see the basis for why they're false but I do want to throw out a few of them right now about how about that first one the hardest option is probably the godliest listen neither happy nor hard is an indicator of God's will God indicates his will neither happy nor hard get to be the plumb line that's not what tells us what God's will is it doesn't make us happy or is it really hard some people would say well makes me happy that's got to be it well no it's super-hard that's got to be it neither one of those who the plumb line for the will of God God tells us his will and what happens is when we make an assumption that hard or happy always means that it's God's will we're short cutting being led by the Spirit you and I you know why we are so drawn to the law because ok I won't say it about you you know why I've been so drawn to the law because I was spiritually lazy it takes some alertness to walk in the spirit we can't I mean we just want give me my rules and I'ma live bomb no it doesn't work like that it works like this Lord I want to pour everything out before you everything of me of my human nature and I want you to fill me full of your Holy Spirit I want to be yielded to you completely where and at an impulse at the press of your thumb I know whether to lean to the right or to lean to the left I want no you I want to unbe literally Lord a temple for your spirit to act and work and to speak it takes alertness we cannot live spirit-led lives and be lazy it is impossible to do it's impossible to do and I tell you this whole thing about if it's hard it's got to be God listen noble disobedience it's still disobedience we can be noble about we're going to be martyrs about it he's going you know what you are disobedient to me I did not tell you to do the hard thing I told you to do my will now my will may be hard or it may be the biggest kick you have ever had in your life but I'll tell you what it is and then I want you to respond to that as another one that really I'm not going to take them all apart but the second one a reason why it was a big deal to me to bring this one to you I'll remind you of what it was do we rarely ask forgiveness once I it would help me so much if I could see in this room how many of you would say no I do it over and over anybody I mean for the same thing like you repented and you truly did you'll repent it we do it over and over you know what we're doing we're reaffirming over and over again that God does not forgive our belief system is saying you know because I'm not going to respond as if you forgave me I'm going to believe that I've done my part but you've not done your part would I'm faithful but you're not because you couldn't have forgiven me because that's not how it works so I'm just going to ask you over and over and over that doesn't that shows no credibility in our belief in its word that says when we confess our sins we are forgiven and completely cleansed completely cleansed if we would start believing we were completely cleansed we'd get out from under some of this Dominion but we still feel filthy so we still going back we still go back to the very same pit over and over again it's killing us our legalism is keeping us in our sins it's not setting us free it's holding us there that's the cost of it true or false must we always bear up with people the word god says we love we love people we are told in the word to forgive but they are several times in the scriptures we are told you put some distance between us and another person I'll just throw out a few to you you can find several of them in other places but second Thessalonians 314 is one second that's only 314 about about people who are idle and don't don't pay attention to what they've been given to do into their to their jobs they're just busy bodies talking about that Titus 3:10 is another place no we're not always told to just keep in a situation continually when we've been done wrong over and over and over again we're told to love with a love that is a best interest sometimes we're not doing someone well when we just stay in there and never say I think this is wrong I love you but I need to say a word to you no and you know what it's been too long since you've heard this read money just need you to say it maybe to a teenager like everybody just practice no I mean here comes a time when we draw a line with someone we love them we've forgiven them but no no no that is sometimes appropriate that is the appropriate answer the one number 11 I tend to feel guilty about some of the good things in my life listen God could not have been better to us than to have given us grace he is the giver of all good gifts the book of James says God is gracious to us and to give him credit to continually give him credit for the good in our lives that is freedom to us this one I want to camp on for a few moments I heard you react to it here I would love so much to hear how you're doing with it on the other side of that screen this this one let's let's sit on it a second um I know God loves me but I think I often disappoint him I want to take y'all there I'm with me for a few minutes and think this through because what our this is question I want to put on the table what are the ramifications in a relationship of leaving that you are constantly disappointing the other party what would be the ramifications of that maybe you and I are not similar after all but I'm going to tell you what I do and I've had them haven't we all had relationships where we're just a continual I mean it's just somebody that you just count please and they're continually it you'd rather get batted you bet oh no they're just disappointed and that happens over and over again here's what I do I hang in there for a while and I really try to do it good because I want them to like me I want them to approve of me I don't I don't want to disappoint them so I do that for a while but if they keep being disappointed I was drawn you say I'm not going to hang in anybody I asked you how long do you remain close maybe you remain in communication but I am asking you this question with someone that you are convinced that you continually disappoint how long will you retain closeness and intimacy of relationship and friendship with them if I were a betting woman I bet you a hundred bucks that what you do is the same thing that I do once I know they're going to continually be disappointed I'm going to start scooting back because I can't stand that mirror all the time well that is true in our face-to-face relationships how true is it with God that if we get in our head he's always disappoint with he's always disappointed with me as always it's a point okay then what I'm going to do is I'm going to try my hardest to still keep the law but I'm going to scoot back because I cannot bear the condemnation a big close to someone that constantly is disappointed in me I listen I when I was researching this subject matter I thought you know what I'm gonna do I am gonna go and do a word search on the word disappointment because I need to see what are the conditions in which God is disappointed in us that would be a big question I want to answer it so I did a little word search not well I can do that with my concordance but you can do it on Bible gateway on all sorts of different websites that that let you put in a keyword choose your version that your can i and then you just put that word in and it shows you every time it comes up so i did that i put in the word disappoint and in the ESV i found the word disappoint zero times in the NIV the 84 and the New King James in the NA s and the HC sv all had it one time one time the word disappoint I looked up the word diss why don't know it's got to be there is it's got to be there so I looked up disappointed okay now we're talking on the NIV original NIV four times ESV and NASB five times never one time in any of those contexts is it ever about God's disappointment I'm on somebody to get a word and listen I don't know I'm trying to think at times in my life what I would have done if somebody would have said this to me I'm trying to think what it would have saved me in my spiritual angst and anxiety if someone had said you know you're have a hard time finding where God is all disappointed in you in the scriptures but I never heard it I mean who wants to teach it because people might misbehave because we're driven by what would disappoint am I telling the truth any money might have been bobble study by myself anybody okay cuz we need it our disappointment when we're disappointing people it works it works it's powerful its powerful so we take that away we don't know what to do so I found the one verse where disappoint pops up in the NIV the King James Version the NA s I want you to hear it out of the Holman Christian standard Bible Romans 5:5 when Jesus through his word says and this hope will not disappoint us I just pull up some money come on now come on now it says the one time it comes up in those particular versions it comes up this way I will not disappoint you whoever puts their trust in me will not be put to shame is what what just happened there I mean that you're a Bible girlfriend that's revival God friend that right there is grounds for rebuff why does disappointment not apply to God well all I have to do there is just go to a dictionary and look up the word disappointment because it means to fail to meet the expectation or hope of sea gunnery knows how this is turning out see disappointment means you don't know what's coming you can't be disappointed if you already knew disappointment comes we don't know the future God's never disappointed because by the time we're coming to me go you're not gonna believe what I did he goes you know I already knew already knew just been been sitting here waiting because I already do I already knew no not disappointed he knows the future he knew everything when he called you he knew everything when he said your name I love I'm first John 3:2 that says this beloved we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared does he might need to hear that when I glanced in the mirror you know I'm not done yet God God still got work he's doing on me and it's not clear to me yet what I'm gonna be like it's not clear to you yet well we're gonna be live but but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is I just love it because of India if I could just throw some King James of terminology around it who God baguettes God has no regrets God has no regrets about the ones he began he's chosen us he does not regret it he knows the end from the beginning he knew what was going to happen before he ever said our names now does that mean he cause I want you to stay here with me saying because this is what happens when I live my whole life when much of my prayer life goes like this and I've lived in this not recently not in recent not in recent months or years but I have lived a good measure of my life like this where what I said constantly to him I bet I'm Oh easily easily forty percent of my prayer time was all about God I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I cannot tell you how much of my prayer time I spent on I'm sorry about the following things and most of them I had said the day before anybody because why because I still didn't I had not paid my penance yet and I got I made some ground yes training my penance but I really didn't go as far as I wanted to and then I messed up now talked about that person then I acted all prideful and so I blew it and so I now I'm back to where I started and so what happens is the more we say and listen we're supposed to come and confess I still tell them I'm sorry but you know what I do now I do it once and I try to discipline myself with it in other words I say I'm gonna test your girlfriend we're gonna see how much faith you have in God's Word how many times you're gonna have to go back to him if I wasn't repenting if I did well pent that's another thing if I did don't go back a second time cuz the mower I'm saying I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so the more it's reaffirming back into my belief system God is so sorry God is so sorry I would turn that around every time in my mind the more I'm so sorry I'm so sorry God is so sorry God is so sorry got is so sorry God is so sorry he chose me that I'm so sorry he called me now listen so I want to just launch out there and be bold enough to say the word does not support that God is all disappointed in us all the time does that mean he cannot be displeased no it doesn't mean that we've the erroneous in our theology if we determine that under grace honestly we never ever ever displease God he'll never let us go but I'll show you a place just if you want to just jot it down so you have it I'm there not many times it says this but Hebrews 10:38 is one of them I'm going to read it to you Hebrews 10:38 because this is profound it says I'm think I'm going to start back at 36 Hebrews 10 36 or you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised for verse 37 yet in a little all the coming one will come and not delay but in verse 38 my righteous one shall live by faith and if he shrinks back my soul will have no pleasure in him if he shrinks back from faith and it says but we are not of those who shrink back listen you know what he's after you know what he credits his righteousness according to the book of Romans our faith our faith you know what disappoints God it's not disappointment what cause we're putting that word to the side what causes displeasure instead is when I'm faithless when I don't believe that God is who he says he is and he loves me the way he says he doesn't that I am who is word declares that I am that that is displeasing not disappointment still call the obedience yes but our obedience of faith it's a beautiful thing I'll let you look it up for yourself but in the book of Romans it begins I think as early as the first chapter right around the fifth and sixth verse it talks about this phrase the obedience of faith it comes up at the very end in Romans 16 toward the very end of the letter it comes up again this whole book is sandwiched between these two wonderful phrases the obedience of faith you know where he wants you to be most of the obedient in your faith in my faith because he knows that what I believe will change the way I live and think and feel it's my faith it's going to be key to living in victory not that I'm just going to be crushed by the law we saw number one some things in our lives need to hear the words no longer number two important point we're making together a life no longer enslaved cannot be lived under the law number three is this it's time we see our lives under the heading of grace we have got to see our lives we got a fruit ladies we got to pick up our purse and move it under grace you might know what I'm talking about gentlemen whatever you got to do you pick it up move the whole thing out from under the law we are over your under the covenant of grace and this is where we must stand it's time we see our lives under the heading of grace law is consumed with behavior grace is consumed with beholding let me taste something else that really occurred to me the law is a great way to use God as our rationale for being all self consumed the more legalistic you are the more self consumed you will be because you are so self consumed about your behavior everything you think everything you do everything everything everything everything so it's as own the law becomes its own foreign narcissism you might know what I'm talking about we got to change what we're standing in change what we're standing in I brought some doormats with me because we've got our doors drawn right here we got the door way that is entitled the law and here is the doormat we stand in if you want to be a person who lives under the law this this is what you're going to stand in you got no choice it'll come back to this every time cuz you cannot keep it I cannot keep it we cannot do look at one another says you can't do it you just can't do it and so this one will constantly we're going to be over here under the law then we're just going to stand in our shame I'm so ashamed of myself I'm so ashamed of myself I'm so ashamed of myself I'm so ashamed of myself so what do people who are ashamed of ourselves do well we just shame ourselves we say it and then we do it see we we don't want anyone to hear this message because we're afraid they'll abuse the whole doctrine of grace you you can know that you're legalistic if you're worried about who's going to hear this step fair come on now is that fair because I think you know I'm responsible and I was like hey dude so what a drink I'm responsible enough to do it without overdoing it but they're going to drive in the ditch no actually this is the way to freedom I'm loved I'm loved and what I do is that I stand over here under grace because I'm gonna stand in the name in the name of Jesus Christ not in the shame I'm going to stand in the name this is the grace in which I have access to Stan Jesus Christ my Savior I stand right here on his name and in him I am the righteousness of God in him I am made complete oh yes you better believe that's good news now I don't know about anybody else with the hair is sticking straight up along I don't know everybody else is having a revival but I'm having listen I'm having one of my own you know in grace this got mean that there's no chastisement or discipline when we I'm just roll into the ditch then it means that even the discipline that we would go through would reconstruct and heal the lame instead of being to just throw us into pieces it's always to put us back together again that's what it's about listen we don't have to get thrown in jail or have an affair or sleep around or steal money I'm from a company to grasp grace all we have to do is lose faith in ourselves and I just ask you have you blown it enough for yourself that you can no longer be your own Savior because that's what it comes down to it's all it takes however bad you got to be until you have lost faith in yourself because you cannot save yourself I cannot save myself Jesus alone can do this and I am gonna get over here I have lived so much of my life there I'm here this is my safe place this is my free place almost and in the name I'm going to stand in the name I'm going to stand in the name God began to show me that self condemnation is the Pope compulsion of credit cravers I just want you to think about it self condemnation the more self-condemning I am is because there's a side of me that wants the craves credit and so when I disappoint myself I'm all about oh I didn't get the credit I didn't get the credit for it died to it it's no way to live this is freedom as we conclude this first half of the series I kept looking for definitions of grace because it's so big how do you get your mind around it and I just couldn't find what really jumped I found so many things and I was blessed by so many things but I'm a very visual person like many of you and so what my thought was well I'm going to just picture what does it look like what does it look like it's so hard to wrap our minds around what what would it look like in action and I wrote down just a little creative writing that I want to read you you as we end and it's on grace and see if any of this resonates with you grace is an inflated raft that can submerge to the floor of a sea to save you grace is the silver thread that stitches up the shreds of mangled souls grace is the eye that finds us where it refuses there to leave us grace calls the waitress to the table and sits her down to wash her feet grace sees underneath the manhole on a street of self-destruction grace is the air to draw a breath in the belly of a whale I want somebody to hear that again grace is the air to draw a breath in the belly of a whale grace is the courage to stand in the shamed wake of a frightful falling grace is the only fire hot enough to burn down living hell somebody grace weights with healing in his wings when we're too mad to pray grace is the gravity that pulls us from depravity grace raises us to the throne when we make haste to repent and always outruns us grace treats us like we are already are what we fear will never become somebody's dear that any name grace treats us like we already are what we fear will never become grace is the doorpost dripping red when the Angel of Death Grips the knob grace is the stamp that says ransomed on a life that screams ruined grace sets a table before me in the presence of my enemy even when my enemy is me grace is the cloak that covers the naked in the poem that drops the rock Grace's divine power burgeoning in the absence of all strength grace proves God true and every self-made man a liar for the sake of his own soul grace is the power to do what we cannot do for the name of Christ to go where it has not been grace is a room of a thousand mirrors all reflecting the face of Christ grace is the eye-popping knee dropping earth quaking pride breaking dark stabbing heart grabbing friend mending mind-bending lame walking mute talking slavering devil fleeing death tolling stone rolling bell tearing glory flaring chin lifting sin sifting dirt bleaching world reaching past covering spirit hovering child offending happy ending heaven glancing feet dancing power of the cross Jesus Christ the squat Jesus Christ Jesus Grayson

Channel: Lesli Pottorff

Views: 67,717

Rating: 4.7355933 out of 5

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Id: ouXLwbGNVBo

Length: 57min 39sec (3459 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 18 2015