Toni Collier: Jesus Does His Best Work in the Darkness | Better Together on TBN

when I really walk in the freedom of Grace like really truly for my own personal life just me Tony I extended so much more to my kids where I mean I came from a household where it was punishment but like you you do something wrong you get punished out here period Point Blank and oftentimes like we take our you know Earthly parents and we apply it to our Heavenly relationship uh with God and who he is and I my parenting has literally morphed into a more grace-filled loving parenting to my daughter but I think it was because I first received Grace one of the hardest moments of my life is when I had forgotten that God's grace was available to me I remember it too I was in a little bitty like duplex me and my daughter single mom in and out I'd gone through a really hard and abusive marriage and um got a divorce and I was sitting there with my daughter and I was just looking at her and I was just so ashamed and embarrassed at everything that we'd been through I'd been in Ministry I've been kind of like a fan of God not like a follower but I just gone through this this really hard marriage and I transitioned out of the church and I had made the assumption that okay like I've been through too much I've done too much I've caused pain Pain's been caused to me and God's grace it's like I just didn't remember that God's grace existed that it was even available to me and I think oftentimes that's what shame does right like it gets us in these deep dark valleys and you just forget one of the most powerful things that my community did for me was help me remember that it was still available to me yeah and the story that I resonate with the most is like John 8 it's the woman that committed adultery which I've always wanted to know her name because I'm like why is she defined by her sin but Brittany we talked about this it's not that she was defined by her sin it was that God was showing us that in spite of our sin even When sin is a part of our story when it's attached to us when we've gone through it he still has a Grace for us and the line that always gets me and I think I may cry my mascara off but the line that gets me every time is you've got this woman she's been brought to the temple Court she's been caught in the act of adultery because you couldn't just bring somebody in the temple courts accusing them of something that you didn't see so she's been caught in the act and I think about some of the moments some of the acts okay that I committed and if I was caught in it how embarrassed and ashamed I would be and she gets there and I can just imagine her because I was her in so many situations and um she's in the typical Court she's in front of all these people and she's in front of this this Messiah the Savior and I bet she's assuming that Grace wasn't available to her in that moment because in that moment she assumed death yeah but Jesus gave her new life and I think that's what Grace has been for me it's been in the moments where I assume and sometimes when I deserve death what's on the other end of my surrender is New Life yeah yeah and I just it it's that line that gets me in John 8 where Jesus kind of looks around and I think he was being kind of sarcastic or he was like where'd he go has anyone I mean has anyone condemned you where did everybody go and I I just can imagine maybe I don't know like her perking up a little bit and being like I mean you right I mean ain't nobody here okay to condemn me but the most powerful line is him saying well neither do I like and it's just the perfect picture of Jesus he's all truth all Grace yeah all the time yeah over and over and over again and I think my prayer as we dive into this conversation around Grace is that we would just all remember that we wouldn't forget that we wouldn't assume that we would not think for a moment that Grace isn't available to us he's got it it's like here and so that's like what Grace has done for my life okay I'd love to hear just how Grace has shown up in y'all's lives when you said that she was caught in the act and when you're describing that story I just I had a moment I had a moment because I feel that a lot of us it's easy to go to church and to approach Jesus and to approach Christians and leaders and and feel like we don't want to get caught yeah but she was caught by Grace she was caught by a Grace that's good when she was caught by grace that set her free and I think sometimes we just gotta let God catch us yes you know and just let our guard down and because when God's grace catches us and this is not discounting him acknowledging our sin because I think sometimes we mistake Grace as if that means oh that we just get by and we just get away with things but in that moment by Grace her sin was acknowledged but she was not punished yes and getting caught by Grace was good news and I just think that's such an encouragement to a lot of us yeah that are afraid of being caught by God yeah but we just gotta let him catch us you gotta let him catch us yeah because that Grace is going to set us free what I love about that like and this is why I say Jesus is all truth all Grace like all the time because he didn't just say like I don't condemn you he didn't just give her grace he said go and leave your life of sin he gave her truth and I think I mean that's what a good father does that's what a good parent does they don't leave you stuck in the wallows of your sin they give you love of enough love to get you out and then enough truth to like see you forward if you're watching right now and you said oh no like I have messed up way too much Jesus cannot forgive what I have done the pain that I have caused what I've walked through first I just want to say I see you because I've said that like no I've done too much I've gone through too much like he is just done I mean there's just too much Darkness here I think what I would say to you is light has no purpose without Darkness Jesus does his best work in the valley places he does his best work in the darkest of moments and circumstances and so if you are in a dark circumstance if you were in a dark season and moment of your life know that it is only a moment know that as we said as you'll hear your Brokenness your suffering has an expiration date and God wants longs to redeem you it is what he's so good at let me remind you of this as you begin to actually believe that God's grace is for you never against you no matter what you've done you're gonna walk around and you're gonna have your head held up high and I just want to say to that future you that Redemption looks real good on you Jesus tells the parable about the Good Shepherd who left the 99. to go after the one yeah and you know so often we give up on people too soon and so Jesus never gives up on people I mean he left all the 99 that were good they were good and he went after the one that had strayed and you think about that because so often it's easy to give up on people especially when they don't you know you've you've tried to help them you've gone after them but there's a point where you just have to give them to God and you have to say God show me how to love show me you know how to how to extend that Grace and sometimes it's not trying to tell them what they're doing wrong it's just loving them through it right you know I mean because nobody wants to be told what they're doing wrong they usually know what they're doing I know what I'm doing wrong I just can't change it right now yeah you know but to just love them and not judge them because that's exactly what Jesus showed in the story of the the woman caught in adultery it's exactly what he showed in the story of the Good Shepherd who went after and so many people think that they don't deserve Grace you know they shy from Grace they don't deserve it they don't see themselves worthy but you know Grace is chasing after us all the time it is chasing us all the time chasing and that's exactly what that story showed when the shepherd went after the one that's what it looks like chasing that one that was lost so you know I think we just have to remember that our own fallacies yeah how we've been given much what does the scripture say when you've been given much you know much is required and and sometimes we don't want to put the effort forth but when you think about man what if that was my child what if that was my you know husband right you know I wouldn't want anyone to treat them like that you know I would want them to be helped so I think sometimes we have to do some shifting and perspective in our mind and realize that you know what it's it's not our goodness like I'm not being kind to you because I'm so great right I'm being kind of because I've been given much I've been Grace so much but I'm willing to look back at my own life and see my own mistakes and you know realize that you deserve even more than I do and unpack with that the differences I mean you as unbelievers what does grace you know what does the world tell you Grace is and then what's the difference as a Jesus follower that Grace looks like unpack that with me off oh well first of all I just want to highlight one more time that Grace is chasing us yeah I think that for some reason I feel like in the world I Feel Like We Are Chasing Grace yeah right like we're that's it because I mean I have been in the world okay I'm Fresh Off The Salvation bus okay I was wondering how I ended up here okay but I do I remember those days where I was it was kind of like a little game I was like I'm gonna go out to the club okay and I'm gonna go wild I'm gonna go crazy because I know like God forgives me it was I was chasing the grace when I accepted that freedom for real for real yeah it's like the grace started chasing me because I was just so humbled I was so surrendered I mean I was just like prostrate every night I was like Lord help me I wake up in the morning I'm like don't let me mess this up don't let me mess this up and it was almost like I started to recognize that the grace was just chasing me it was just there it was available it was a well of life no strings attached Etc et cetera I feel like when we're in the world we Chase it we're like how can we be forgiven for the things that we've done okay how can I get away with this how can I you know it's so easy to see the negative in life every situation in the different people around us and so we project that on God we think well if we see the negative God must be seeing everything that I'm doing wrong every mistake that I've made but that's not true God is concerned about you he wants you to get better all the time he's not looking at what you're doing wrong believe it or not he's looking at where you're going and what you're doing right so I encourage you today to change your perspective and don't view God as a god who's sitting up in heaven waiting to just knock you off your chair view God as a loving heavenly father one who cares about you one who is there to pick you up and carry you through I love the um scripture I think it's Psalm 27 4 where David says where the wars rage around me and my enemies will stumble and fall it's like there's one thing that I want I just want to dwell on the house of the Lord and Gain use it as Beauty and I'm like yeah yeah that's what I want and it's funny because as I was sitting here I think about like you know all of us as we are parenting and navigating life and I think Grace has really changed my parenting when I think about the grace that when I really walk in the freedom of Grace like really truly for my own personal life just me Tony I extended so much more to my kids where I mean I came from a household where it was punishment but like you you do something wrong you're getting punished out here period Point Blank and oftentimes like we take our you know Earthly parents and we apply it to our Heavenly relationship uh with God and who he is and I my parenting has literally morphed into a more grace-filled loving parenting to my daughter but I think it was because I first received Grace and the better I receive it the more I can say to my daughter like oh you dropped this oh you made this mistake my daughter's wild y'all called her my strong-willed blessing because it makes me sleep better at night okay but I mean and she's just constantly like she's just gonna test it okay she is going to test the waters and I just I I can see a difference in her from these last few years because I you know she's expecting what I expected she's assuming what I assumed I assumed death I assumed that because I did this I deserve this and I can see her just like so much more quickly saying I'm sorry Mom I did that wrong but it's because of the grace that I've started to activate as a parent because I received it as a daughter Grace transforms is that another one okay grace catches Grace transforms and it can transform you the people around you the people that you're raising some seeds of Grace that we could plant in other people some of these things can just be simple day-to-day things like laying your hands on your children while they're sleeping to pray for them to give God praise while you are in the car ride to work to encourage A co-worker to just to enjoy God in all the things that you do whether you are whether you are washing dishes or folding laundry these are all seeds of gray so we could plant in every season of our lives and in every moment I really do hope that people catch what you said earlier in Victoria you talked about like this idea of God looking for the bad like he's not doing that he's not looking for the bad so much so God has been what what's actually been on his mind is the plan to bring us closer to him to bring us to full life that it was actually him saying okay they've messed up again all right the the story arc of the Bible is just like us messing up over and over again and him just saying okay I got another plan I mean it just reminds me of like a little two-year-old it's like oh goodness gracious okay you almost hit that edge of the table oh my goodness you almost you ate some grass today this is crazy and he and as a parent you're just always trying to bring them back to safety to Grace to comfort and I just I think one of the things that I want to pray about is for the person that's like but I just keep stumbling the temptation's just too great it's just too hard hope that someone knows that God's just this parent with these big old arms saying oh I got you yeah I got you no no I see I I actually know you were going towards that Temptation I know that this is your weakness but I've got a plan to bring you back to safety I'm chasing after you let me pray for us oh God oh we're so grateful for your grace [Music] truly and God our our prayer is not at all for more grace because we know that Grace is chasing after us our prayers that we would rest and remember the grace we'd remember that the grace is available to us and would rest in the acceptance of it that for all the things that we've done all the things that we've been through all the things that we're carrying even right now in this moment [Music] that as Paul wrote through the Church of Corinth there's a Grace and it's sufficient it covers that protects it guides it catches and it comes after [Music] help us remember that father and your son Jesus name amen amen

Channel: Better Together on TBN

Views: 67,247

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Id: 2cCWjiUkNMg

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023