26th February 2023 - Teaching Service - Clem Ferris - Trained in the struggle

It's recorded right day. Yeah sosite, it's live on the website. So

good morning to you online and watching, and it's good to be with you.

And we've got some more digging in the word to do, which would

be great. You know, pastors need pastors like athletes, it's a stressful

job and it's work, it's spiritual work. And actually, like an athlete,

pastors need coaching, they need training, and they need to have the

right diet and all that, just the way you would train for physical exercise.

You know, pastors need that too. So I'm glad that Dave can.

He's juggling two jobs as it is, but I know there's conferences Dave

goes to and that helps coach him up. And he's a reader, he's

a learner. So most of all, the best thing you can do is

pray for Dave and Julian because they carry The leader of the of any church

carries a different weight than anybody else. When everybody else leaves on Sunday,

all the tidying up's done, the room is quiet again. They walk out

of this room carrying a different weight than some of you, even those of

you on the leadership team, because the senior leader carries that particular responsibility,

and so the best thing you can do is keep praying for David Juliet.

I mean, I know these prayer warriors do that, but loft him up

in prayer. Amen, best thing you can do. So, hey,

good morning, we've been waiting for you. Come on in, now I

can start. I decided I have to keep stalling until what great rooms getting

fall. You have to bust out these tables, maybe bust out some walls,

right, build a second story. I don't know, I'm kidding,

but I gotta make room. Amen. You gotta make room for God inside.

But you got to keep making room. Quick testimony. You all know

Grace Church up in Sheffield, England, and Luke Jackinson leaves that church and

I was there last year and I said to him, you need more chairs.

He says, we're not quite full yet. I said, no,

you need to make room for more people. Sometimes pastors think when every chair

is full that I'll put one more chair out. And I said, you

got in space, I said, put more chairs out. So we're messaging

just last month because I'm going to be visiting there in June. He goes,

Hey, guess what he says? We put fifty more chairs out.

We're filling them up, So you got to make space. It's funny how

that works. Almost it's almost a psychological and sociological phenomena of creating space.

Just like a restaurant. If you go into a restaurant and there's like,

you know, you got to wait and there's no tables, and you're kind

of like, well, let's go somewhere else. Right, If you come

into a church and you peak your head and it's full, there's no room.

We want to send the message like there's room for you. We've got

room for you online of course, but if you're watching online, hey there's

five empty chairs here. Come on, we watch you. We've got room

for you. So I'm all about making room. I just I just think

that we're in an incredible time of harvest. Something is happening in the earth,

and whether it's it's not just because there's a little revival going on in

America, but there's things happening in other campuses, things happening in schools,

things happening where there's even pressure. Even when there's times of crisis, which

we've all familiar with that word now, I mean the word crisis comes off

our lips much easier now because we're all been familiar with what a crisis is,

whether there's an earthquake or a pandemic or whatever. So that's where we

need grace. That's the fuel we run on, is the grace of God.

And I want to talk about that this morning. Term of the a

Titus. I want to talk about a particular aspect of grace, because grace

comes in all different sizes and shapes and colors, and so I'm going to

talk to you this morning about being trained in the struggle with sanctifying grace,

being trained in the struggle. What struggle you're talking about, I'm talking about

your daily life, your humanity. Right, we all have a struggle going

on. Paul describes it several ways in the Bible, using metaphors like the

flesh that opposes the spirit. That's a struggle. Just the fact that you're

still stuck in your carnal body, that's a struggle. The old man versus

the new man, he wrote to the Ephesians, and so there's different ways

to describe the struggle. But we are struggling in our temporary mortality until we

finally hit eternity. We're all saying, yes, Amen, that day is

gonna gloriously come for all of us. In the meantime, grace is here.

So look at the Entitus, Chapter two, verse eleven, Paul says,

for the grace of God has appeared. Just stop right there and just

bask in that phrase. The grace of God has appeared. God didn't keep

it to himself. He didn't keep it in heaven. It came to earth,

and I said it. Grace is personified for us in the Lord Jesus

Christ. How do we know grace? When Jesus showed up, he was

the personification of the grace of God. The grace of God, Paul reminds

us, has appeared, and it doesn't come empty handed. It brought something

to us, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce on godliness

and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in this

present age. Comma is a very long sentence is one long sentence by Paul

verse thirteen, Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of

our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who this is still going told

long sentence who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness,

and to purify for himself a people for his own possessions, who are zeal

for good works. Period. As a long sentence, Paul Man, he

packs a lot of theology and a lot of doctrine in one sentence, and

then he just finishes by saying, declare these things verse fifteen. Exhort and

rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you. Wow. The Book

of Titus short, little book full of doctrine duty. It guides us,

teaches us about church, church leadership and eldership, teaches us about the home,

husbands, wives, teaches us about the world, and the core is

the idea that the grace of God has appeared. None of this would be

possible without the grace of God, and God's in control of that. When

I was a young boy, we lived in a small town until I was

my teenage years. But when I was really young, maybe five six years

old, I had an older sister. Then we end up had two other

siblings later, but it's just the two of us at the time. And

where we lived we had a detached I know you say garage, we say

garage. I don't know who's right. Maybe the French are right, I

don't know. But our garage was detached from our main house, and so

if we were out there for a Sunday driver visiting grandparents, my dad would

pull the car into the driveway and he'd stop by the house. We had

a side door entrance in front, and he'd let my mother and sister out

and they'd go in the house, and then he would call me up from

the back seat to sit on his lap, and I would drive the car

into the garage. How about that at the age of five, and it

was a big old This isn't the sorry I'm aging now. This car was

like a nineteen fifty seven big Chevy this cane. It was huge. Tho,

those cars back then were huge. You ever see the cars in Cuba.

Yeah, those were the same car. And the steering wheel was I

mean, it's as big as a hula hoop. It was huge for this

little kid. And so I'd get on my father's lap and I'd grab that

steering wheel. I'd grip it and like I in my small, little uneducated

driving mind, because I would sit in the back and watch my dad drive

the car. Well, I never saw pedals or anything. I'm just sit

in the back and all I could see was the top of the steering wheel

and my dad's hand going like this all the time. So I thought,

I'm gonna drive the car in. So I've grabbed that steering wheel and I'm

starting to go like this, right. He goes, you're ready to go,

Yeah, let's go, and you know, he revs the engine.

Okay, let's go, and he just crawls. Well from here pretty much

in the back wall wasn't that far. And we get in there and I'm

like a mad man doing this, and I'm thinking I'm driving the car.

Yeah, and we get in. He goes, good, stop, great,

I a good job, you drove the car. I could not wait

to get out of the car, run in the house and boast to my

sister. Of course, I just drove the car into the garage, mister

wonderful. I never realized all those times I did that, I'm going like

this right. My father's hand was firmly on the bottom of that steering wheel,

gripping it very firmly. It wasn't going to go anywhere he didn't want

it to go. I never realized that I was nothing going driving the car

and driving the car. How many of you this morning assume you're driving the

car. We all do, don't we. We really think we're driving the

car. Well, I've got good news for you. Your father's hand is

firmly on the wheel. He's in control. That's the grace of God,

the grace of God. God has appeared, Paul says to Titus, bringing

salvation for all people. Yes, but look at verse twelve. But grace

has also come to train us, training us. It's a saving grace,

but it's a training grace. And so love and grace bring us to conversion,

thank God. But it meets us the very next morning in the struggle

to train us. I've heard many people say I didn't know what a struggle

was until I got saved. I didn't know what trouble was until I came

to the Kingdom of God. It was like, Holy Cow, there's a

battle going on. I didn't even know it. Because life is about a

fear, struggle, flesh, spirit, new man, old man, however

you want to describe it. But the grace that appears is the grace that

remains. God's grace. Doesn't believe in one of the psalms we saying,

was so wonderful to remind us that He's always there. God's always there,

Father's hand is always on the wheel. This word appear, I love it.

Epifano is the Greek word. It's where we get the word epiphany.

It means it to shine, to shine upon the grace of God. We

were all in darkness right. In fact, we were in a kingdom called

the Kingdom of Darkness. We were blind, we couldn't see. We thought

that was normal life until the grace of God appeared and it shined upon our

darkness. It popped our eyes open, and suddenly everything changed. And then

that grace goes to work training us. We're all in training. We're all

like spiritual athletes. We're all in training. And so I'm going to share

with you some things that grace does to train us in the battle. These

are the things that grace is doing for you even right now. So five

things this morning that the grace of God is doing to train you in your

battle. Number one, God, by his grace, actually reveals who the

real enemy is. We all have an enemy. It's not just like,

well it's the devil. Yeah, but it comes in all different shapes and

sizes. The devil comes at you. There's all kinds of things. The

way that the enemy tries to lure us into his realm under his authority,

tries to influence our decisions all those things, and the grace of God will

train us and reveal the true enemy of our soul. Back to verse twelve,

He's training us to watch WHA's that word renounce ungodliness, that's an enemy

and worldly passions basically the things that we long for that we shouldn't have.

That's a worldly passion, longing for that which is forbidden. When those things

start rising, the grace of God will begin to act upon our soul whatever

you want to call it. Conviction, guilt, I have a stomach ache.

I feel terrible. I shouldn't have done that. Just start speaking to

you. Grace inflames acts upon the soul and actually will reveal that impurity and

cause it to rise up so you can deal with it. And the way

we deal with that interesting is this word renounce, renouncing where Grace will expose

you to the real point of attack. It's not him, it's not her,

it's not my boss, it's not the person in the car ahead of

me that just won't drive right. You know, it's the real point that

God wants you to make a turn crisis. Like I said, we're used

to the word crisis. The word crisis simply means a turning point. It's

just a place where you have to make a decision. You're in a crisis.

We must make a decision. And in the middle of the struggle,

once the struggle begins to open up, suddenly you have to just immediately go

to this scripture and say, Ah, sanctifying grace must be at work in

my soul right now. There's something God's going after in my soul. How

often we would try to pray it away, I think we'd be surprised how

many times we're actually resisting the grace of God. We're pushing away the grace

that's come to and act upon our soul and reveal the true enemy. So

next time you have that struggle, just pull that phrase out. Hallelujah,

sanctifying grace doesn't work in my soul. Honey, I'm gonna be a better

guy by the end of the day. Something's going on here. I know

I'm acting like a jerk right now, but sanctifying Grace is at work in

my soul. God will show you what the real enemy is. Secondly,

God does train us how to fight patiently, say patiently, say it out

loud and say it really elongated patiently. It's agonizing, isn't it? Just

the word patience. I started get a stomach ache already, like I gotta

patiently fighting now. I want to quick fight. I want to shoot,

you know, dead done. No grace, you see, Grace appears with

a job description, Grace trains training us that were trained. Pat Duo is

the Greek word. It means, it's the word that would be used of

a father giving instructions. It'll it'll train us, it will give us instructions.

A father bringing gentle correction, a father bringing discipline where it's needed to

teach and to instruct. H I don't know if you have. If you

remember when you were maybe younger, maybe primary school, but perhaps you'd walk

into your classroom and there'd be a stranger sitting at the teacher's desk that morning,

and you, of course look at your friends and get all excited because

you go substitute teacher, no work, no lessons. We can cause trouble

free day, no homework until the teacher pulls out the lesson plan that the

regular teacher left and said, okay, open your books to page five where

we left off yesterday. What I thought we're gonna have. A substitute teacher

wouldn't have to work very hard. You know the thing about grace, the

Grace of God is not a substitute teacher. It's not temporarily trying to keep

the class in order until Jesus comes back. Grace is the real deal.

Grace is your teacher, and it meets us when we would get saved.

It meets us right where we are to take us where God wants us to

go in our character, in our journey, in our mission. Grace opens

our eyes to see. Grace opens our ears puts us in touch, Yes,

even with our weak areas. That's kind of hard. Somebody said,

well, he's got real grace for that, and then you always have to

say, and he doesn't have grace for that. They shouldn't be doing that.

In other words, find your lane and run in it. But it

empowers us at the same time to renounce. Let's go back to this word.

Renounce puts us in touch with our weak areas or the places of attack,

and then Grace will train us. It says to renounce on godliness.

Another word renounce means to reject by command Ooh, you have to talk how

many? If God wants a talking church. I appreciate your all being very

polite and not talking while I'm talking. I'm not talking about that. I'm

talking about we have to use the weapon that God gave us. We have

one offensive weapon, which is the Sword of the Spirit, but it doesn't

do anything unless you activate it. You got to use it. Our weapons,

our tools that change lives, are our words, and so we have

to renounce on Godliness means to disavow it and reject it. I reject that

in Jesus' name. You call it out. I reject that feeling. I

reject this wrong desire. You speak it out. You can't just stun it.

There was an American science fiction TV series I think it probably made it

over here. I'm talking a long time ago called Star Trek. Anybody remembers

Star Trek now Star Wars. Star Trek that was before Star Wars. I

dare ask if anybody remembers Flash Gordon. No, you're not, Oh,

you're oh you're not that old. We love our space science fiction, but

Star Trek people would remember when Captain Kirk would beam down on an unknown planet

with his landing party. He would turn to everybody and say, okay,

everybody phasers on stun. What does that mean? Well, there could be

an enemy here. We don't know what we're facing, and until we find

out, if something comes at us, I want you to just freeze it,

stun it, figure out what to do with it. Do you know

you can't just stun sin. You don't freeze sin, immobilize it temporarily.

There's also a time when Captain Kirk will say, okay, everybody phasers on

kill right, you got to kill this thing. Well, when it comes

to sin, you got to kill it. Or, as John Owen said,

the famous Puritan pastor from the sixteen hundreds, John Owen, said,

you better be killing the sin or it will be killing you. So phasers

are always set on kill right, not stun. We're not trying to freeze

it. Let the instructor arise. The grace of God arise on you to

renounce on God. I renounce it, on godliness. I renounce that desire.

You renounce it. I say I reject you in Jesus name. That's

not me. We have a powerful weapon, but man, the devil doesn't

want you to use it. He doesn't want you to share the gospel.

He doesn't want you to pray out loud, doesn't want you to PROPHESI I

could change someone's life. You see how the enemy wants to shut us all

down. He doesn't want us gathering together. Stay home and just watch Dave

on the internet. We don't talk to anybody. You see how the enemy

just wants to isolate, shut the voice of the church down. Is that

what Paul saying here? The grace of God has appeared, training us to

renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. But not just attack sin. Not just renounce

sin and attack it, but watch the rest of the sentence. But to

live how well, live upright? That's a good start to live godly,

self controlled lives in the present age. You're gonna do that really well in

heaven. But Paul said, the grace of God will train us how to

live upright and godly in this present age because he is our weapons expert.

And not only do you kill sin, you see, sin always comes with

an attitude. You say this sometimes either people we know, or if any

of you have children, you can see us. You can see a sinful

attitude in your children before they ever sin. You can just look at them,

go they're about to sin. Change your attitude. It just comes out.

How does it come out? Usually in their words, maybe you see

it on their face, but boy, a certain phrase will come out of

their mouth and go, you need to change your attitude. And I think

that's also what grace will reveal, the attitude behind the sin. Sin always

comes with an attitude, which is a settled way of thinking or a settled

opinion or feeling that we have, and it then acts out. It's reflected

then in our behavior at some point. So when someone is behind you and

honking the horn and shaking their fist, it's the attitude that I'm selfish and

you're not going fast enough for me, and can't you see the light and

just turn green? And you're still sitting in your car texting your friends.

Attitude comes out. So he says, training us to renounce the ungodliness,

but teaching us and training us how to live self controlled not a good goal.

I want to live more self controlled. I want to live upright,

righteously, devout, dutiful in the present age. Now here's the next thing.

Though. While all this is going on, God puts us in very

unique situations, which I call his waiting room. You give verse thirteen.

All this is working out, and Paul says, waiting. I know it's

a nasty word, isn't it. It's like patience training us to renounce on

godliness, worldly passes, to live self controlled. Right, where's this all

taking place? God? Oh, in my waiting room. And God has

some very clever, very interesting waiting rooms. He puts us in waiting for

our blessed hope. Hope is just you know, hope is is something favorable.

I mean, let me give you this idea about waiting first, and

why we're waiting for the blessed hope waiting. How many like waiting? How

many never raise your hand at church? That's all of you, Okay,

So you're never gonna raise your hand at church when I ask you to good

sore, but we're waiting. You never say, honey, what do you

what are you going to do this weekend? I don't know. Let's go

book in at a waiting room. I'm sure a lot of them are empty

on weekends. Let's just go hang out in a waiting room. You know.

A number says that it's like you have an appointment. You get there,

it's crowded, people are impatient, and you're sitting there and you're on

time, and doesn't irritate you when you're on time. And then someone blows

in late for their appointment which was before years, but they're late and they

just blow in and the reception says, oh, yes, well come right

and the doctor will see you. Wait. Wait, I've been waiting.

This is a waiting room. They have to wait. They don't get to

just come in. So we don't like to wait waiting for our blessed hope.

The word wait is actually it's actually it's not a do nothing word.

It's a verb and it means literally to It means to look. If I

can just boil it down and say, there's something about anticipation that tied in

with waiting. It means to await with patience, to give ear to something

favorable. So it's watching and attentively get in your ear to something favorable,

in other words, to grant access. So when God puts you in a

waiting situation, You're in God's waiting room. The grace is there. It's

in the waiting room, and it's teaching you how to grant access to God.

At that moment, God wants to say something to you. God wants

to meet with you in the waiting room. God will talk with you.

God will reveal something to you while you're waiting. So the idea of waiting

for our blessed hope, blessed hope, hope, what are you hoping for?

I means anticipate with pleasure. I hope so who's playing this weekend?

So and so is playing rugby? Yeah, I hope my team. We

all have hope. I hope there's a good deal at the store. I

hope. I hope so and so shows up to church. I hope.

I hope the weather's nice. I hope. We're all hoping to anticipate with

pleasure. That's why Paul reminds us waiting for our blessed hope, which is

what ah the appearing of the glory of our great God, and saying,

you know, the glory of God can appear in a waiting room. If

you're hoping and we want to be in the waiting room, going I hope

this appointment gets over really fast. But I'm waiting. Grace meets us in

the waiting room where our life our sins. Yeah, you carry your sins

around, your sinful nature and grace. They all play out God's plan in

the waiting Some of you were in a waiting room right now. You think

you're at church, You're actually in God's waiting room. You're waiting for something

to happen. And in the waiting room, Grace helps you see what God

wants you to see and then sees the opportunity. You seize the opportunity to

be trained. God, what are you trying to tell me? What am

I trying to learn? Here? Situations where you become aware? And this

has happened to me so many times. I've got a annual pass to the

waiting room. I'm a charter member. I just walk in. They don't

even check my ID anymore. Mister Ferris, do you again, come on

in. God's been waiting for you. It's like here I am, I

am go to work where you become aware of being of your own I call

it self absorbed unbelief, where I'm actually flogging God with my own problems and

my own unbelief. I'm mad at God or whatever's going on, because don't

you know, unbelief is the basis of all sin. All sin comes from

unbelief. That's Romans fourteen seventeen. Whatever's not of faith is sin. So

all sin comes from somewhere you're not believing what God says. And so I

remember one time periods where I was waiting with no apparent resolution to what I

was praying for. I'm gonna the prayer room can be a waiting room.

You're praying for something God, I need to do this. I want you

to do this. And you're, for instance, praying for a financial need,

and God is answering my prayer for finances with care development. Simon said,

God, I'm not praying for character development today. I need money,

money pounds over here. I need dollars pounds, God, I need provision.

I need this, And he goes, No, you need character training.

I got plenty of money, clem. I've got plenty of money.

You need to grow up in this area. You need to believe me.

One of the very first prophetic words that my wife and I got almost forty

years ago, three phrases that still ring in my heart because God will always

remind me of these key phrases that He's spoken to us that have guided our

personal lives and our ministry for forty years. He said this, don't trust

in man, don't trust in ministry, trust in the Lord your God.

And you think, well, sure, I could recite that prophecy to any

church in town. It would fit, wouldn't it. When that's a personal

prophecy, and it goes right into my heart and then God brings it back.

He puts me in the waiting room and I'm going through an issue or

i need finances, and I'm trusting in my next ministry right trip, I'm

trusting in a church. I'm trusting in man. God says, come here

a minute, ferrispat goes to take a seat. Okay, you're not trusting

me, you're trusting in Man again. And he keeps me in the waiting

room and he comes in and he's just gently starts peeling away another layer of

unbelief that's deep inside me. He knows, God knows every you know,

We're like it's like an onion, you know, you just peel a level,

a layer of onion away and the tears start coming I'm sorry, God,

I was there there. It's okay now, but I'll be back.

There's another layer. God doesn't God, God doesn't chop the onion in half.

He just peels off the layers through circumstances, situations. So I remember

one time, this is years ago, but it was December. It was

my last ministry trip of the year, going in the northern part of the

United States. It was cold and snowy, and I flew into a town

and the pastor picked me up from the airport, and I knew it was

in for some kind of a weird weekend. There's going to be a challenge.

As he greeted me at the airport and I said, hey, brother,

how you doing, He goes, oh, you wouldn't believe what happened

this week. Now, Dave doesn't do that. Dave's always so chipper and

so but some passers just have to get it out sometimes. And he was

carrying what happened to Tuesday, the furnace went out in the church. You

call it the boiler, the thing that produced the heat. Here's cold and

snowy. Oh, the furnace went out. So we've been working on getting

a furnace installed and actually were working out of this afternoon. Hopefully we'll have

heat for the meeting tonight, and he goes, I don't know how we're

going to pay for it. I'm just I'm looking to this weekend. It's

gonna be my last provision weekend for the for the rest of December because Christmas

was coming. So my wife and I'll tell you, I'll just use the

number. We had the number one thousand dollars in mind, so we need

a thousand dollars to finish our budget Christmas and then start the new year.

So we're asking God, and we prayed God, we're asking for a thousand

dollars. So we get there on Friday and then he goes, Yeah,

don't know how we're gonna pay for it, and it's gonna be nine hundred

dollars. And I'm saying, oh boy, this is not good. That's

my nine hundred because I tied, so I'm we were asking for a thousand,

but of course I tied, so I'm and all this stuff's happening and

nothing. I'm like, oh okay, but I said, God, you're

gonna supply I kind of didn't, but I'm still looking to the church and

I'm still looking to me. So we go through Friday. Trace God the

heat was on Friday night, we had our meeting. I did his men's

breakfast. Saturday morning, I counseled with some of the afternoon, had a

Saturday night meeting, props out over with some people. Sunday morning preached.

I got done preaching to sit down in the passages and go, so,

thank you very much. Brother. One more thing before we smiths today.

Something happened this week. We're gonna take a special offering. And I'm sitting

on the front, going, that's probably my offering. They're gonna take a

special offering for me. Of course, it's all about me. So something

happened this week and the furnit. He starts telling the furnace story to the

whole church. The furnace went out on Tuesday, and we didn't know how,

but Brother so and so was able to find a used one and they

worked on it all week. They got it installed, and we just thank

God for that. Now the problem is we have to pay for it.

So we need nine hundred dollars for the furnace, and so we're gonna take

a special I'm not sitting in the front, going, that's my money.

They're taking an offering for a furnace. So I got Christmas coming in,

four kids, and I'm just sitting there smiling, and that offering bucket went

right past me. I didn't even look. The grace of God had me

in the waiting room. So they get done, dismiss We grab a quick

sandwich and then off to the airport. I go on the way to the

airport, his phone rings. It's one of the deacons. Yes, yeah,

oh, pray God, brother, that's good news. Amen, thank

you brother, clad what good news? What all the money for the furnace

came in. That's my money, I said. They're going to praise God,

brother, praise God for the fur Praise God. Your people are so

generous. I like, great, brother, great. So get to the

airport and I'm stepping out of the card. He goes, oh, just

a minute, and he pulls an envelope on, going, oh, there

we go. There's my Christmas present. There's I'm like, oh, and

I'm already being so holy. Thank you brother, God, bless you.

You're awesome. It was a great weekend. God is good. Merry Christmas.

Get into the airport. I opened the envelope and pulled out a check.

Now I had already paid my airfare. It was two hundred and eighty

nine dollars and the check was four hundred dollars. I did the quick math

minus two eighty nine is one eleven, right, So that was my net.

I said, God, you're missing some zeros here. I'm coming home

with one hundred and eleven dollars. And yes, I tied. So I'm

coming home with one hundred dollars, one hundred and one, well, one

hundred and eleven cents, not a penny more. God, you're not getting

one penny more. Tithe, You're going to write the very bottom right.

And I'm living. And I'm like, what God like, I'm just you

gotta wine to somebody. So I was called Mary Jane. She's my first,

my wife. I get in the airport and of course she go,

Hi, I'm at the airport. You won't believe what happened. Same thing

the pastor pulled on me. You wouldn't believe what happened. You won't believe

what happened. You don't. So I tell her the whole furnace story and

get all done. Silence. This is Sunday afternoon. Oh, she said,

I forgot to tell you Friday, two days ago. Friday, Yeah,

we got an unexpected check in the mail for one thousand dollars. Oh,

praise the Lord, honey. I knew God would come through. I

just spilled my guts about the furnace and how I laid it all out,

and that, Oh, I forgot to tell you. God said a thousand

dollars to us. It was at my house before I ever got to that

church. You see, God answered our prayer and then he put me in

the waiting room all weekend. I got so tired about hearing the furnace,

and the whole time I'm in there, God saying, die, fairest,

die die to your unbelief. Are you going to trust in man? Are

you going to trust in ministry? Are you gonna trust me? And when

I got in that airport, he just pulled a big layer of unbelief off

of me. I repented. I cried, not out loud, not certain

if you could see me, but I got undid me. I remember,

I just kind of like, oh God, I'm so sorry. I had

to repent. But you see, grace of God met me. God put

me in that waiting room because he wanted to get something out of me.

See, I was starting to lean back into I'm trusting in churches, I'm

trusting in my ministry, instead of saying I'm trusting God. I know none

of you could relate to that, but I thought i'd sure that story anyway.

Okay, so let's move I was two more things. Quickly, God

anchors us back to the cross with sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace will always bring

you back to the cross that trains us to remember. So let's go back.

Now we're done waiting. Okay, are you happy you're out of verse

thirteen, waiting waiting for our blessed hope. Watch the appearing of the glory

of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ Luke Diverse verse fourteen, who gave

himself for us to redeem us. Stop think that phrase. See the grace

of God comps it trains us, It meets us in the waiting room.

And what's the goal? Take us back to the great appearing of our God

and Savior who gave himself for us the Cross. Don't forget the cross.

What's this whole program about a savior who died and gave himself for us to

redeem us. That's what it's all about. Wow. See, grace trains

us to remember Jesus. It trains us to remember why he went to the

cross. That's what these appearings are. That those epiphanies are like, oh

I forgot. It's like bright light, moment, light bulb over the head.

The grace of God has appeared. And then when we're waiting, we're

waiting for the appearing same word of the glory who gave himself for us,

the appearing of the cross. Somewhere the cross should pop up in front of

your screen. Go oh yeah, what's this all about? Anyway, the

Savior who gave himself for us to redeem us, that he might redeem us.

It means to loosen with a price, was used in the markets to

it means to buy something out of the marketplace. We were bought out of

the marketplace of slavery. We were bought with a price. We have to

remember that because in our battles and in our struggles, you see, we

can all drift from the cross. All kinds of things out there are trying

to get us away from the cross. We drift we're drifting, disciples,

just face it, and Grace gives us the teacher to draw us back to

Christ when we start drifting. Grace part of its teaching is to get us

back to the Cross. Not just to resolve sin, that's good, Not

just to resolve the areas of sin, but to bring a light, bring

in epiphany, bring a light, and not just to see the sin,

but to see God. You know, we're really good at helping people see

their sin, aren't we. I mean, even in parenting, you gotta

watch it. Sometimes we're just so on alert to be police and cops and

you know, trying to correct all the time. We also have to help

people see God, Savior, full of truth and grace. He sits on

a throne called the Throne of grace. It's not a chair, a God

appearance to remind us where our sin was dealt with. Why do we have

to go? Why should we Why should the grace of God take us back

to the cross to remind us of what happened on the cross. That's where

your sin was dealt with. So when you become sin conscious, the grace

of God says, it's not just oh it was me, my sin,

my sin, my sin, Yes, repent, renounce what Remember the cross,

it's been dealt with, We sang about it. This morning was lovely.

And the fifth thing, this is so good because God calls us to

help other people in their battles with sanctifying grace. See, grace is never

just for you. Grace was given to you so you could give it to

others. That's how you grow. You grow as a leader in the church,

in the kingdom, in your family, at the work you grow.

Why as you give away, the Kingdom of God has a giveaway system.

Paul finishes writing this little bit with chapter two to Titus. He says,

in verse fifteen, declare these things, what things, the things that grace

of God has done for you. Declare how you've renounced on godliness. Declare

how you've waited for the glory and the imperiod. Declare what sectifying grace is

at work in my soul. This is what God did for me. Declare

what Jesus went to the cross dealt with my sin to redeem me for himself.

Declare these things exhort, rebuke with all authority. That doesn't mean you

criticize people or judge them. It means what turn them in the right directions.

You shouldn't be saying that. That's not how God sees you. That's

not what God says about you. You ever, the Holy Spirit correct you

in side. I've had quick corrections from the Holy Spirit and he's so gentle.

But he's just like so I get rebuked, and that's not necessarily a

negative connotation. It means don't think that way. One day I was going

down my offices in my basement. I'm just going down the stairs. I'd

just done something, I'd forgotten something or something, and inside I said to

myself, you're such an idiot. I just did it. Now I know

you. You would never You're you're all way too polite over here in the

UK. But I was just like, claim, you're such an idiot.

And immediately I heard these words, I don't say that about you any There

wasn't anybody else around. It came so quick I got rebuked by the Spirit

of Grace. Sanctifying Grace rose up and said I don't say that about you.

That wasn't me. Because I just said it and nobody else is around.

I knew that was the voice of the Holy Spirit saying I don't say

that about you. You're not an idiot. We make mistakes, yes,

we do sin, but you know what, God never says you're such an

idiot. He redeemed us. I remember the Cross. You import grace and

then you export it into someone else's world. Why do we have to do

this, why this little exercise this morning? Well, we forget. I

don't know about you. I forget, I literally forget sometimes about the grace

of God. And so that's why God gives you leaders. You pray for

your leadership team. Why God gives us leaders to remind us they didn't you

preach that sermon a couple of years ago, Dave, Yeah, and you

need it again. So we need to be reminded. I mean how we

need to be reminded about the Cross. And we're slow to change. We're

talking about sheep yesterday and how sheep had four compartments in their stomach because it

takes a long time for them to process. Food goes into one stomach,

comes back up, they chew it again, goes back down, goes in

the second stomach. There's different things transforming what they're eating in that whole process.

Sheep are slowed to change. Sheep are highly skeptical. This is a

study actually done by an agricultural college on the nature of sheep, and there's

many more characteristics, but some of these always fascinate me because it's so true,

having been in ministry all these years. Sheep are by nature highly skeptical.

They're very passive, and they resist change, among other things. We

want to have a war, but we don't want to wait. But so

often it's the waiting is actually your war, waiting on God. I'll bet

everybody in this room could say I'm waiting on God for filling the bike.

You're waiting on God for something, and the waiting is your war. Where

God is going to meet you with sanctifying grace to do something that you can't

do that he wants to remove out of you, sanctify. That's that way

to purify. Look at the very end of verse fourteen, he redeemed us

from lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. He's

purifying us in this lifetime. Now we're going to be really clean in heaven,

but right now he's purifying. That word is catharizza, where we get

the word catheter. He's got a spiritual catheter. He's purifying for himself and

it's not selfish. Isn't that beautiful about God? So let me leave you

with one thing to remember. What's the one thing I should remember? Clem

well, I find if you remember one truth at the moment of a trial,

you can enter God's change process. God God starts working if you remember

one truth? And what's the one truth that I should remember? This is

not double talk. You need to remember to remember. Let that sink in

from minute. You might have to put that in your second and third stomach

before that actually hits. Like, what did you say? Remembering is the

first change? I've got to remember something. What's going on? I don't

know, but I need to remember something. What am I forgetting? We

see when sin and agitation and struggles come, we often are so sin conscious

or aware of what our struggle is we forget the grace of God. If

I can just encourage you when these things happen, remember the grace of God.

Remember one thing. What is it? Sanctifying grace is at work.

There's sanctifying grace available to me right now, and you identify it and celebrate

the power of God that he brings to you In grace. So I'm gonna

close with an illustration that you're probably familiar with. It is a story out

of John chapter eight, where there's a woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees,

the religious people bring her to Jesus, you know, and they're gonna

kill her. They're gonna stone her because the law said she must be stoned

to death, and you know the story. Jesus writes in the sand.

And then he says, he that is among you that never sinned, cast

the first stone right. And of course they all just drop their stones and

walk away. And Jesus says to the woman, where are your accusers?

She says, they're all gone this word. He says, neither do I

condemn you. Now go and sin no more. And for years in my

mind I saw Jesus for like forgiving her like, I don't condemn you,

as that's grace. He didn't say it's okay, you did it. He

just said, I don't condemn you your sinful act. He goes, I

do not condemn you. And for years I thought, oh, that's grace

law, Thank you Lord. Now go and sin no more. Well,

that's law. Back to the law. The very law that was trying to

put her to death. It's almost like Jesus said, Okay, you got

grace for this moment, but you better not do it again. I'm go

and sin no more. I almost are like, yeah, what if?

What if you reverse that? You see? Actually, when Jesus said neither

do I condemn you, why did he say that? He's supposed to the

law said, she's supposed to die. He wrote the law, he was

the law. Ah, but he fulfilled the law. Jesus came to fulfill

what we could not do. We could never fulfill God's holy law. But

Jesus said to the woman, says, I don't condemn you because I'm going

to take that adultery to the cross very soon and it will be dealt with,

and you will not be condemned for this act because I'm going to save

you from that. I'm going to redeem you from that act, and I

will take your sin and you'll remember it no more. I am the fulfillment

of the law. Now go and sin no more. See that's the grace.

Go ahead, go. Based on what I'm going to do with the

cross, You're not going to be sinning anymore. Is this a crazy good

news to say for Jesus, say go and sin no more, knowing she

still got flash. But see I said yesterday in the simmer, God sees

the end from the beginning. He says, I see you at the end.

I see you in the glory of my appearing. I see you as

my child forever. Now just go, go and sin no more, because

the grace of God has just appeared to you, bringing salvation, training you,

delivering you from unrighteousness. Isn't that good news? That is the gospel

everybody, And that's the best news for Egham and London in the world.

And we are the ones that have to get that word out. So I'm

going to pray for you. Father, We thank you, and I'm going

to give kind of a word to our CF but we're going to direct it

to the leaders that are here. Juliet's not here, but I'm not sure

how it's going to come out. I just want to pray. Let's just

say, God, we need this, but see God wants you to give

it away. Father, we come. Thank you for your reminder, thank

you for drawing us back to the cross this morning. Thank you that the

grace of God has appeared and been shining on us today to remind us what

you have done for us. But God, we can't keep it in this

room. That's almost illegal. It's wrong. It's a kingdom violation to say

it's all about us. We got we got the good news. Sh don't

tell anybody else We've got the good news. Let's herald it. That's what

That's what Paul said to me. He says, declare these things. Declare

the grace of God to other people who desperately are dying, who need it.

He said, let no one disregard you or depreciate would be another way

to say, r CF, you're a big church because you have a big

God. We don't. We're not. We're not out to try to build

big churches necessarily. We want to build big people, big people in the

kingdom. Big sheep, big healthy sheep are full of the grace of God.

You can wadle out of here well, big fluffy coats of wool and

full of God's grace. And people don't know there's a healthy right there.

Where do you get fed? Who's your shepherd? So what I was sensing

I started bubbling yesterday. I got a little bit more today. This is

for Dave and Simon, and yesmind and of course Julia, who am I

forgetting Juliette and Nikki she's still here, oh there? And Letty. Okay.

So I'm speaking this to you as is the team, the leaders,

but it's for the church. I feel like God says, prepare for a

few divine disruptions. Divine these are divine, other words, the hand of

God. He's going to disrupt some things. Prepare for some divine detours.

Prepare for it, divine distractions, because God is bringing new attractions. So

what seems like a distraction, and I think it's like this is a distraction

from what we had planned or we have vision for because I'm I'm going to

give you a new attractability if I can say, I think I just made

up a word. There's new attraction to RCF. I think there's some changes

coming that you as a team are going to have to just pray it through

and sense it. And I almost I want to say it this way,

Guys, be radical. There's so much change in the air, whether it's

a spontaneous revival, but I think these disruptions are divine. How many of

that was a divine disruption? On that college campus when they just started praying

for twenty four hours, day after day after day. It's like, you,

guys, get your homework done. No, I was praying. It

was a divine disruption, and I just feel like that's in the air,

and I would just say, hold everything you have been doing here lightly,

I mean everything. And I'm not prophesying and I'm not predicting any particular thing.

But when I hear the Lord say hold everything lightly, that means everything.

That means everything, this building, your service times, the name of

your church, who you're going after. I really feel like there's a divine

disruption on God's going to disrupt. If I could say it, you're fishing.

It's almost like, you know, Jesus came and disrupted professional fishermen,

said you need to put your nets over there. Hey, are you kidding

me? We're professionals. He goes, I'm going to disrupt your professional opinion

of where to fish. I would say, let your nets down over here.

I really feel like there's some new fishing that would not be see there's

something that God wants to attract people. I guess the question is what bait

are you using? How are you attracting people sinners, and I don't have

answers. I'm just hearing things from God that's going to stimulate your prayers.

That's what the prophetic words does. It. Like we taught yesterday, it

takes you right back to God. God, what did you mean by that?

You were the d word three times? What did you mean in every

one of those? And let God begin to fill your hearts. Take some

notes, get into prayer, get on your knees and say God, what

do you mean by that? What did that mean to you? Simon?

What does distraction mean to you? What could it mean on a regular Sunday

or during the week. Maybe there's something on the website. I don't know.

God is creative. God can do anything. Ultimately, He's good and

he's full of grace. Julie, good disruptions come in your way, and

you know what I hear lots of delegation. You're a trainer. We talked

about how the grace of God comes to train us. You're going to go

into a season of training and giving away so much of what you're really good

at. You are the epitome of the ministry of helps m M. But

you know what God wants you to spread that out and literally give it away.

The kingdom is crazy. It's a giveaway system. You get money,

you give it away. God gives more. It's the print, sowing and

reaping give away. God's not taking your ministry away. God says, give

away what you've learned. He's going to multiply it. I really think there's

growth coming. But God says he's going to change some change up some of

your systems. Because right now, the current you have a system for everything.

Right, I've known you has a long time. I know how you

do. You have a system, you set things up, you have coffees

and this is all done because there's a system for sitting even this is how

we sit at RCP every Sunday. Well, God might disrupt your systems if

you don't change your systems. The systems you have will always deliver what you're

getting right now, Does this make sense? Now, that's kind of like

they're practical. But so there's systems you're going to give away. Julie,

You're you're going to be a trainer. You're going to be moving more from

a doing role to a training and teaching role. They're great at what you

do. But you know what, You've got to multiply yourself. Every one

of you have to multiply. Even pray for Dave. Dave juggles a lot

of balls, but there's some balls. Call him a glass ball only Dave

can juggle. If Dave drops that ball, it's going to crash on the

floor. The other balls are rubber, he can drop it and it'll bounce

up. Somebody else can get it. But there's certain ones that only Dave

as the visionary, and that would be one of them. The vision of

our CF is in his hands. God gave always gives it to the visionary,

but there's other things he shouldn't be doing. I'm not correcting. I'm

just saying there's other things to release Dave and his gifting. And you know

what, there might be people that are not in this room yet that God

wants to bring. So if you have that mindset, like we're going to

pray in a permanent tech person, they're probably going to be undertwe years old,

thankfully because they know they know everything. So now I'm just saying,

if you only have a vision to repaint the inside of the the room,

guess what God will send you a painter if that's all your vision is.

But if you say, God, we have a vision. We want to

reach more young people. We want to do this. We want to even

take our tech to another level. We want to develop it at whatever it

is. You start praying for God and God says, I'll send that person.

Then if you had the faith for it, I'll send them. Are

you with me? God's stirring something, So I expect changes to come for

you, and I'm going to pray that for you because I think you know

basically if you there's an acronym camotis called but it basically says this, if

you always do what you've always done, you always get which you've always God

or whatever. There's no change, nothing but God's God wants to change for

the sake of those he died for. Aymen, you are strategically, I

believe, located right now. But this is just this is just the first

doorway that some people are going to be coming into. So let's just pray

and seal this that God we want to We want to declare the things that

Paul was declaring to Titus about the grace of God. People need to know

there's a loving God of grace. Peter called him the God of all grace.

People walking in the streets of Egham right now. No idea what grace

is, No idea they can be forgiven, no idea. There's even hope.

We've got the answer. Father, I just I just asked there would

be a surge of declarations of the goodness of God, the grace of God.

Exhortation, exhort, he said, Timothy or Titus, go exhort rebuke

with all authority. You're authorized. God just wants to tell you, RC

you are authorized to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. You're authorized by God

Almighty. And let no one disregard you, let no one depreciate you.

You are not too small, you are not not unnoticed. You're not in

competition with any church. You are who God made you to be. But

guess what God says, I'm not going to leave you where you are because

there's other people to reach for Jesus, Amen, be encouraged. God bless you.