Jimmy Evans – The Grace to Change – The Gift Of Grace

you would turn in your Bibles to Romans 7 and I want to finish this series hope this series has been a blessing to you that you know more about grace right now than you did before thank you yeah I love I love preaching on Grace and this message that I'm going to bring is just one of my favorite messages is called the grace to change grace gives us the ability to change now you know all of us have things in our lives that we want to change sometimes we have something really big in our lives that we want to change you know it may be stopping smoking stopping eating so much drinking drugs you know something like that that we want to stop doing or maybe it's something we want to start doing we want to start exercising eating better praying reading our Bible something like that but we feel like that we can't the New Year's resolutions are an example of this according to Nielsen Analytics losing weight is the number one New Year's resolution that people make but also finding love saving money a bunch of stuff like that but according to statistics only 64% of New Year's resolutions lasts longer than the first month only 46% last longer than the first six months and only 12% of people succeed at their new year's resolutions so on January the first people who are saying I want to start doing this or I want to stop doing this only 12% of those people are gonna be successful so that's the bad news you know is that we struggle in trying to change some of the bigger things in our lives but I want to talk in this message about how to find the power to change anything in your life and it's not hard and it doesn't take willpower when I say that people just look at me like what what did you just say I'm saying but by the grace of God we can change anything in our lives and it's not hard and it doesn't take willpower and I want to use an example in scripture here beginning with in Romans chapter 7 where I ask you to turn there's someone talking about three things that are necessary in changing anything your life the first is understand the corrupt an incorrigible nature of your flesh incorrigible means it can't be changed if a person is incorrigible it means they're just not going to change there's nothing you can do to help that person you have resident within you flesh fallen flesh that will be here until you die or Jesus returns it's here and we have to deal with it now this is the Apostle Paul who was a Pharisee who was the most brilliant person in the New Testament with the exception of Jesus and one of the most disciplined people because he was a Pharisee they were very discipline people and he's talking about his inability to change if the Apostle Paul struggled would change I mean then we understand why we do so he's talking here about he's trying to change but he can't Romans 7:14 I can if this is the message version by the way I can anticipate the response that is coming I know that all God's commands are spiritual but I'm not isn't this also your experience yes I'm full of myself after all I've spent a long time in sins prison what I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way but then act another doing things I absolutely despise so if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary but I need something more for if I know the law but still can't keep it and if the power of sin within me keep sabotaging my best intentions obviously need help I realize that it don't have what it takes I can will it but I can't do it I decide to do good but I really but I don't really do it I decide not to do bad but then I do it anyway my decisions such as they are don't result in actions something has gone wrong deep within me and it gets the better of me every time it happens so regularly that it's predictable the moment I decide to do good sin is there to trip me up I truly delight in God's commands but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight me my really for this step I mean he's just being honest parts of me listeners parts of me covertly rebelled and just my least expected they take charge I've tried everything and nothing helps I'm at the end of my rope is there no one who can do anything for me isn't that the real question list off right there so the Apostle Paul is just being honest and he's saying I struggle I struggle with trying to change I don't want to do things better to them anyway it's just it's just regular that it happens he says you know I want to start doing thing but I can't do it he says I do love God I do delight in God's Word and God's laws but it's obvious that not all of me agrees with that and he says just when I want to do good parts of me covertly rebel and act against me in the New King James Version it says my flesh wars against me every time I try to do good so at the end of his confession this is now the new king james version this is romans 7 here's what he says I delight in the law of God according to the inward man but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members a wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death so he asked this question he's going to answer it here in just a minute and I just completely relate to this I love Jesus and I know you love Jesus I love Jesus but not all of me loves Jesus I love the Word of God but not all of me loves the Word of God I want to do the right thing in my heart but not all of me wants to do the right thing and it's my flesh it's my fallen flesh and I have to if I'm going to change I've got to wake up to the reality that there is a part of me that will not change and every time I want to do the right thing it's going to be there to sabotage me I've just got that it's just there in all of us it's there so Jesus comes here's the second thing we need to understand if we're going to change is understanding the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives why is the Holy Spirit in our lives listen us now so in Romans chapter 7 the Apostle Paul is just being very honest and he's saying you know I want to do the right thing I can't do it and at the end of the the chapter he asked a question a wretched man that I am who's gonna save me from this body of debt that Romans that remember when the Bible was written there were not chapters in verses okay this was an epistle this was just a leather and so Romans 7 in Romans they belong together they're the same train of thought from the Apostle Paul listen in Romans chapter 7 you just saw what Paul said Oh wretched man that I am who's going to save me from this body of death in Romans 8 in the first 16 verses he mentions the holy spirit 15 times remember the way we change is understanding our flesh cannot be changed it's incorrigible it's fallen it's always there to war against us the second thing we have to understand is the purpose of the holy spirit so the Apostle Paul is saying I just can't do it I just I've tried everything I just can't do it who's gonna save me from this body of death the answer is the Holy Spirit does let's read this is Romans 8:1 he's continuing there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit the things of the Spirit for to be carnally minded his death but to be spiritually minded his life in peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be so then those who are in the flesh cannot please God but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he is not his and if Christ is in in you the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you I'm to stop right there at the end of verse 11 but he continues to go on through the chapter talking about the Holy Spirit Paul's answer to how who's going to save me from this body of death is the grace of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit gives us the power to overcome flesh and to do the things that God wants us to do the with God never intended that we would live without the Holy Spirit when God breathed life into Adam's nostrils in in Genesis chapter 2 when the when the Greeks took the Old Testament and they translated it into the Greek the word breathed it when God says that God breathed into Adam's nostrils that's the Greek word emphasize get our word emphysema it means the breath of life God did not breathe oxygen into Adam he breathed his spirit of Adam he never intended for mankind to live without being filled with the spirit but God said in the day that you eat that fruit you'll die when they ate the fruit the Spirit of God departed from them but they still had oxygen in their lungs then man was depraved in three chapters later it says the world was full of violence in corruption we're not designed we can't live without the power of the Holy Spirit in us and God never intended to and there's only two choices there aren't three or four choices there are two choices this is again Paul in Galatians five lists somebody says I say then walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh pretty simple right for the flesh lusts against the spirit in the spirit against the flesh these are contrary to one another or opposite one another so that you do not do the things that you wish but if you are led by the spirit you're not under the law now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery fornication uncleanness lewdness idolatry sorcery hatred contentions jealousies outbursts of Wrath selfish ambitions dissensions heresies Envy murders drunkenness revellings revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand just as I told you in time past that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such there is no law and he says here if you are led by the spirit you're not under the law what does that mean there's a law of sin inside of you it's in all of us that's what Paul was talking about Romans seven there's only one way to escape that law is by a higher law the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus what the law could not do in that it was weak through our flesh God did by sending his son in the likeness of pleasure so now we can be set free from the law of sin and death inside of us through the law of the spirit of life if we walk in the spirit and our only two choices you can walk in the power of your flesh you can walk in the power of your spirit let me talk about willpower for just a minute you know self-discipline is a good thing I'm not saying in any way that it's not important and necessary in our lives but we know statistically that we can't change the big areas of our lives through willpower in fact I think it's dangerous to try some time is the example you know will willpower is like a rubber band it's like you know wrapping a rubber band winding rubber band it gets tighter and tighter and then it snaps and you say well I want to lose weight and I want to get in shape so you wake up every day you symbolism goodness shape and you just do it you know you're just good you're just going you're just doing about willpower you're willing it and you start losing weight you start getting in shape and then one night they find you dead in the back of a doughnut store you snapped at for closing hours you broke in and you died of a sugar overdose you couldn't take it anymore you wound up at D we did we can we can go so far just by human willpower but then we snap all of us can relate to that and four categories of sin in the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 5 there are four categories of sin by the way when he talks about the deeds of our flesh sexual sin was the first one adultery fornication and clean this lewdness and what he's saying is if you're not walking in the spirit these are the things are gonna happen emotional sin and most of the sins that he mentions are emotional sensitive hatred contentions jealousy outbursts of Wrath selfish ambition envy dissensions murders remember he said the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love peace patience joy long-suffering completely the opposite okay sins of excess drunkenness and revelry and spiritual sins idolatry sorcery and heresies and what the Apostle Paul is saying is if you don't walk in the spirit those things are just going to naturally happen but these are they happen because we're not walking in the spirit okay so the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 asks the question it already did man that I am who's gonna save me for this body of death in Romans 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus now I'm gonna say something that I think is gonna surprise you okay because everytime I say this people look at me funny but it's but it's true what I'm about to say is true so here's I've got a question for you why is there no condemnation when we sin okay good answer because you're gonna look surprised when I say it's because God didn't expect us to stop sinning he knows we can see condemnation is about us grace is about Jesus the devil wants to focus it on us and here's what the devil wants to say what why do you like the way you are what's wrong with you you don't read your Bible you don't pray you don't do this you don't do this and you do this this this and this you keep telling Jesus you're gonna stop and you dump what's wrong with you you you you you see the devil's right there is something wrong with us and we can't change just go ahead and agree with him God doesn't expect me to sin he expects me to yield to his spirit he knows I can't stop that's what the Apostle Paul is saying I can't I can't be a good person goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit there's no why is there no condemnation because it's not about me it's not about the good things that I do or the bad things that I do it's about the righteousness that's in Jesus Christ only in Jesus cannot be a good person only by the grace of the Holy Spirit can I change he what the devil wants to convince us of is we better get our act together before we can get to God I can't get my act together til I get to God and his throne is a throne of grace thank God on my worst day when I'm in my worst condition I'm invited into the throne room because it's not about me it's about Jesus it's not about my performance it's about the grace of God there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do is that it was weak through my fallen flesh God did by sending his son somebody say Amen so when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives here's what he does so this is Galatians 5 again the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control well let me talk about two of the fruits of the spirit goodness and self-control okay so you say well I want to do the right thing good goodness is the Holy Spirit giving you right desires so you have a wanter inside of you you have a little switch he'll to have a little want or switch inside of you may not have known it and so when you're doing bad stuff it's because your watch or switch is turned in the right wrong direction and so you wake up so here's so I don't want to live the rest of my life trying not to do something I really want to do you know you wake up in the morning and going to pour some coffee and you know some you know jar cookies you say don't eat that cookie don't eat that cookie and all that you got the cookie gets in your head and all day long you're thinking don't eat the cookie don't think don't eat the cookie just don't eat it don't eat that cookie and you avoid the kitchen because you know what's right there and all day long that cookies up in your head and you go to bed at night and you're thinking to yourself I didn't eat the cookie well just go ahead and eat it it runs your whole day it's gonna need it you wanted it you wanted it all day long what is goodness holy spirit give me righteous desires change my wanter flip my water you can walk in the flesh and battle your flesh all day long or you can walk in the spirit and he'll give you goodness which means he'll give you his desires so it doesn't take a lot of willpower I'm not constantly fighting my flesh because he gave me goodness and changed my water we could also have a cantor it's called self-control okay so your Cantor is what you're able to do and not do so your want or says do this and you don't want to do it but your Cantor is weak you got a weak camera okay and so you come to the Holy Spirit and say Holy Spirit give me self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit our flesh is the opposite it's indulgent its weak it gives him so easily so you wake up in the morning you say Holy Spirit changed my water and change my canner I don't want to wrestle today all day long with my flesh I want to have righteous desires and I want to have self-control so I can do the things that I need to do every single day he will give you that grace if you'll ask for it and you know how you get to the point we ask for it when you realize you don't have a one percent chance of success if you don't and we're all in the same boat if the Apostle Paul couldn't none of us can't let me tell you a few stories and then I want to pray for you another some of you that want to change stuff when Karen and I had our marriage was real bad I was a really bad husband and really bad husband Karin wrote a book called from pain to paradise that she talks about the early years of our marriage and she came to me and she said hey Jimmy will you read this book before it goes to print just tell me what's saying so I read the book and that's it was me she was telling the graphics story of me before I changed it was hard for me to read and she had forgiven me but the sister didn't forget nothing [Applause] that sister she has a dangerous memory so and I read her book and I thought I remember him but I'm not him the I told Karen to get out one night we had a big fight and you know I was just a terrible husband that morning I had read John 16:13 because I read the Bible everyone I was terrible husband I read the Bible every morning I was a jerk but I was a sanctified jerk and so John 16:13 says Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes he'll lead you into all truth and that just interested me that that verse interested me all day long I thought about it that night Karen I got in horrible fights she won the bedroom crying I told her to count and I was in the living room and I I didn't know what to do I I knew I was about to lose my wife and I remembered that verse and I said to the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit teach me how to be a husband because I don't know well when I said that it was like blinders fell off with my eyes honestly but before that moment I'm telling you the truth before that moment I thought to myself I'm mr. wonderful and I just accidentally married the devil's ex-wife who knew you know when I prayed that prayer because I was deceived I was the deceived name when I prayed that prayer something fell off my eyes and I thought I am a jerk and I'm married to the most wonderful in the world and I went in repented to Karen told her that I was sorry and it didn't change everything that night it began to change you said well Jimmy how did you how did you change how did you change from being that man to this man every day I woke up and asked the Holy Spirit to help me I would wake up every morning and say Holy Spirit would you just help me love Karen I don't know how I don't know our marriage ministry came from that when I tell men how to understand women how to talk to women how to treat women that's the Holy Spirit talking how to do that it transformed me it transformed me I'm not that man I did not change trying to change I changed by following the Holy Spirit and receiving his grace let me talk about smoking just make it a smoke I started smoking at 15 years old we started smoking before baseball practice my friend's mother smoked salem cigarettes they're they're bad and they're all bad the fellows are really bad but he was still summer cigarettes we went in the alley and would smoke and maybe deathly ill every time we did it but I hung in there and got addicted I [Applause] was very committed so I smoke Marlboro cigarettes from the time I was 15 of time I was 25 and you know so the Lord called me to preach when I was 19 years old but he told me to stay in business with my family and so I would wake up in the morning you know when I got saved and I would have a quiet time and I smoked four or five cigarettes drink coffee just have a big time now I didn't know any better you know I just said thank you Jesus you know boy and so I did I didn't know so I was about 24 one at one morning and I was praying it's just having a big time to have my time you know and the Holy Spirit said and this was sweet no condemnation in this whatsoever he said I can't do but I want to do in your life if you smoke and you know because y'all don't want me a percent turn to John chapter eight if you would and let me so he said I can't do what I want to do in your life if you're smoking so I started trying to stop that's for about a year I tried to stop could could not stop never got one day without so I tried dozens of times never made it through a whole day without smoking so I woke up one morning at about 25 years old I was going to go in the ministry at 28 years old so I was 25 years old and I woke up one morning defeated and I said to the Lord I can't stop I need your help now my greatest frustration with me is how long it takes me to ask for help that's my greatest frustration with me the Lord never told me to change myself he just told me he couldn't do what he wanted to do in my life if I spoke okay very sweet very precious no condemnation so I was smoking when I was talking the board and the Lord said listen I said I need your help please help me here's the Lord said from this point forward every time you're tempted to smoke say I'm a nonsmoker I was smoking and I thought well okay and the Lord said when you put this cigarette out I want you from this point forward every time you're tempted I want you to could just say I'm a nonsmoker so I saw I smoked all that cigarette and some of the filter it's being honest and so as soon as I put it out the Lord said now you say I'm a nonsmoker and so I went to work that day and we had a delivery we had a customer in New Mexico and they had a thirty square mile ranch this master grant wonderful people and we had this huge delivery out to their place and so I went with the delivery man I had to go to the delivery man to New Mexico to deliver a bunch of stuff and so I had to ride with this one guy and he smoked so we got in the truck and we got a about a mile or but about an hour out of town and he noticed I wasn't smoked and he pulled out his cigarettes and said you need a cigarette I said I'm a nonsmoker he said really I watched you smoke all day yesterday [Applause] I said that was yesterday and they'd all seen me try to stop without a dungeon so all day long he's on me all day long and so in the truck he's still a nonsmoker we get there all day were installing stuff you still nonsmoker all the way home still nonsmoker every time you said it said yes I am still nonsmoker I didn't smoke that day that's how stop smoking I mean I can't believe it I'm I can't believe it I mean I tried everything and you say would it work for me I hope yeah trying give it a shot I don't know all I know is the Lord will help us if we'll ask for help that's all I know and I did not have the willpower I did not have the ability but he changed me through that let me give you one more story and I'll pray for you um about 12 or 13 years but I can't remember the the timeline is quite a while ago I went to the doctor I've got very high cholesterol all the men in my family have high cholesterol no heart disease nothing like that we just have high cholesterol so once the doctor and he put me on lipitor II so we got to get your cholesterol down and I love doctors I'd loved the medical profession I do not in any way want this to come across as disrespectful with all of them but he put me on lipitor well it made my muscles sore and it made me short-tempered kind of aggressive and Karen told me one day she said you need to get off that Jimmy yes this is change changing you and and so I guess I was sort of tempered with or something like that so one day my loving wife said to me she said I would rather you die younger than act like this [Applause] I said thank you and she was right so I got off of it you know went back to doctor you know year to later and he said are you sewing my lipitor and I said no and he said Jimmy you need to be on something you've got to get you know your cholesterol down so he put me on another one same exact thing happened went back seen you know your two later are young on that message now put me on another one put me on our one through four of them so about four years ago I guess it was I went to see him and he said are you on that cholesterol medication I said I doctor I just can't take it I am so sorry it just messes with me I can't take that medicine he so I've got one more for you he said no this one acts differently this this one changes the way your body metabolizes food so this is not a statin it's not like the other medicines I gave you he said try this one because I think this one could work for you well I took it and I gained 30 pounds in two months I got off of it and gained 20 more pounds I gained 50 pounds it didn't change the way my body metabolize food it stopped my metabolism I was eating the same never exercise more in my life in my weight skyrocketed so I got off of that medication and I mean I blew up like a balloon and it was discouraging because I mean I could lick a french fry and gain a pound it just didn't matter what I did and so again my greatest frustration with myself is how long it takes me to ask for help so on January 1st 2018 I woke up and I was very very discouraged about it and I said Holy Spirit I pray that you'll heal my metabolism because something's wrong now I'm gonna say something now having wrestled with this myself there are a lot of people who are overweight and battle their weight for very disciplined people they're battling genetics they're battling their metabolism some cases are battling the hormones you need to have a lot of compassion for people who are struggling in that area but I woke up on January the 1st to 2018 and I said Holy Spirit I pray that you would heal my metabolism and I pray that you would give me the grace to lose this weight and change my desires and change my okay so that was January first I've lost over 30 pounds since then I've got another 20 pounds to lose but I've lost a lot of weight since then and it's just been very natural I don't feel like breaking into donut stores anything like that it's been very natural it's been very systematic but but I want to say this he changed that day that I prayed that prayer I woke up and it was or woke up and prayed that prayer it was later that morning that my metabolism came back on and I was standing in the kitchen I just got real hot there was like a motor running inside of me that hadn't been running for a couple years and my metabolism came back on and he changed my desires and he changed my abilities he changed my water in kenner and just very naturally I started losing the weight that I couldn't lose before there are some of you that you are trying to change and your your symptoms some of your defeated because I felt that way at times and you've changed you've tried so much that you stopped trying and I want you to stop trying to change on your own your flesh is incorrigible it can't be changed and your willpower just you just don't have the willpower to in make any big changes on your own and if you try it's just gonna unraveling at some point but the Apostle Paul confessed and said I just can't pull it off I just I've tried it's just predictable it's gonna fail who's gonna save me from this body of death the grace of the Holy Spirit that when we if we will just admit that we need help God resists the proud the people who think that they can do it themselves but he gives grace to the humble and humble people are people who just say I can't do this without you I'm not gonna be able to change unless you give me the grace

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 87,252

Rating: 4.8470783 out of 5

Keywords: gateway, Gateway Church, gatewaypeople, Sermon, Jesus, God, Dallas, Texas, Jimmy Evans, The Gift Of Grace, The Glory of Grace, Grace, Glory

Id: 790X48APPOo

Length: 31min 15sec (1875 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 29 2019