The Land Part II: Grace Land Deuteronomy 28:1-14

I know it's you, I know it's me

I know the land of power

For you is my land

I know the land of power

For you is my land

Mother, I'm calling you

I'm calling you in my life

Mother, I'm calling you

I'm calling you in my life

And I will worship you with all of my heart

And I will worship you with all of my heart

When I wander through the desert

And I'm longing for my home

All my dreams have gone astray

When I'm stranded in the valley

And I'm crying all alone

Seems like I've lost my way

I'm going running to your mountain

When your mercy sets me free

You are my strong tower

The shelter over me

You are beautiful and mighty

Everlasting here

You are my strong tower

A fortress without me

Your name is true and holy

And your face is all I see

In the middle of my darkness

In the midst of all my fear

You're my refuge and my hope

When the storm of light is raging

And the thunder and storm are here

You speak softly to my soul

Now I'm running to your mountain

When your mercy sets me free

You are my strong tower

The shelter over me

You are beautiful and mighty

Everlasting here

You are my strong tower

A fortress without me

Your name is true and holy

And your face is all I see

And your face is all I see

Yeah, your face is all I see

I'm going running to your mountain

When your mercy sets me free

You are my strong tower

The shelter over me

You are beautiful and mighty

Everlasting here

You are my strong tower

A fortress without me

Your name is true and holy

You are my strong tower

The shelter over me

You are beautiful and mighty

Everlasting here

You are my strong tower

A fortress without me

Your name is true and holy

And your face is all I see

I can only imagine what it will be like when I die

I can only imagine what it will be like when I die

I can only imagine what it will be like when I die

Surrounded by your glory

What will my heart feel

When I dance for Jesus

Or when love will be still

When I stand in your presence

Or to my knees when I fall

When I sing hallelujah

When I be at your feet

Oh, I can only imagine

So we've been working through the book of Deuteronomy

And last week we started a three part sermon on the land

And we talked last week about the promised land

And today's sermon could have been entitled the bridge land

But that doesn't really make any sense in common English and so I didn't do that

This is called Graceland

Not Graceland, the mansion of Elvis Presley, that's a different place altogether

But this is Graceland, meaning the land that God has given us by grace

And the land in which grace reigns

I'm going to talk just briefly about a phrase that people have used

And see if you actually know where it comes from or what it means

Has anybody ever heard the phrase, living on borrowed time?

Okay, now do you know where it comes from?

Okay, somebody tell me what it means or what we use it for

Okay, kind of like that, yeah, so like people say

They had a close brush with death maybe

And a motorcycle accident almost got killed, whatever

And then after that they say they're living on borrowed time

Or there's a philosopher that once said that it occurs that people get so old

That they're basically not really able to do much of anything anymore

And they're required to be taken care of by their loved ones

They're in a hospital bed, can't be taken care of

Other than by constant intensive care, that kind of thing

And they say that person is living on borrowed time, meaning they will soon die

So it's kind of a dark thing, kind of a dark phrasing that we say is living on borrowed time

But interestingly enough, it comes from a completely different place

Twice brought back into language, once in roughly the 1600s, it was like 1655

In England, they changed the calendar

And what they did was they took 11 days of the month of May

And added it to the month of April, I think I've got those days right?

So they took 11 days of the month of May and bumped it back to the month of April

Thereby making the months of roughly the same length

And what they then would say that those days were borrowed days

Borrowed from the month of May to add them back in the month of April

Or borrowed from the month of April to add previously to be in the month of May, I don't know which

But bottom line is the first 11 days of May as borrowed days given back into the month of April

And that's where people would say borrowed days

And there's a quote that says, so it is usual among us to ascribe unto March borrowed days from April

Or to April borrowed days from May, right?

However, that's not where it came into our vocabulary from

It later came into our vocabulary in 1898 when the English dialect dictionary defined the phrase and said

A man who lives on borrowed time lives on trespass ground

Except that it did not then go on to describe what trespass ground is

That's getting a little bit more like what you're talking about

Living on borrowed time means that this time does not really belong to us

It really belongs to God, our time, our efforts, where we live, all the things that we're doing

Do not really belong to us, they really belong to God

And so to say that we live on borrowed time like we should have died by now

Is a pretty trivial use when we're actually talking about the fact that all people could well have died

Going all the way back to Adam and Eve and we all, according to what the Bible says, are worthy of death

So I want you to bear that in mind then as we get into the text

I will tell you that this will go by fairly quickly

I didn't practice it quite as much as I might like to

But I'm thinking this is a fairly short sermon compared to what I normally do

So we'll see how that goes

So keep your thinking caps on so you don't miss anything

And we are now in Deuteronomy chapter 28

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

Amen!

Thank you, Miss Chris, I guarantee you she's hooting and hollering in her house right now

Miss her in the room

Alright, Deuteronomy chapter 28, listen to this

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

Now it shall be, if you will diligently, that means if you'll work at it

Obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you today

The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you will obey the Lord your God

Couple things in there to notice real quick before we go on

Number one, he's saying if you'll do what you're supposed to do

God will set you up above the nations of the earth

Now that's key because they don't deserve that

They're just ordinary people

They were stuck in Egypt crying out for help

And God said I'm going to take that nation there

They don't deserve this but I'm going to take that nation there

Mind you, as I promised and we talked about that last week

Take that nation there, bring them out and make a people for myself

And said if you will follow my commands, I will set you up

God says, as a nation over or above all the nations of the earth

And then he says that all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you

This is an interesting language there, isn't it?

The blessings that God is promising, not just the ones that we're about to read

But in general the blessings that go with his grace are chasing you

They are pursuing you and we'll come back and talk about that later as well

Verse three, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country

So it doesn't matter where you are in the land, in the city, country, wherever you are, you'll be blessed

Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground

And the offspring of your beasts and the increase of your herd and the young of your flock

So in other words, everything that all your work tending to the flock and the land then produces will be blessed

Verse five, blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl

So your basket is where you store stuff on the way to the larder or whatever

And your kneading bowl is where you work with the stuff to make it ready to eat

So you're going to be blessed in the bringing in of the product

And you're going to be blessed in the preparing the product for consumption

Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out

So whichever way you're headed right now, you'll be blessed

The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you

That is surely not good news for the enemies of God's people

But those enemies that rise up against God's people will be defeated before them

God will cause it

They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways

So they're going to come together in a group to stand against us or against God's people

And then they will flee scattered

Their disunity will divide them

The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to

And he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you

The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself as he swore to you

If you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways

So all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord

And they shall be afraid of you

And so notice that not only are we getting all these blessings

But here he says the people of the earth will recognize God's people as different from others

And they will fear God's people

Eleven

And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity in the offspring of your body

And in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground

And the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you

The Lord will open for you his good storehouse the heavens

To give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand

And you shall lend to many nations but you shall not borrow

In other words they would be producing so much that they would have an abundance that they could give to others

But they wouldn't need anything from anyone

Thirteen

And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail

You only shall be above and you shall not be underneath

If you will listen to the commandments of the Lord your God which I charge you today to observe them carefully

In other words if they would be very intentional about their following the commands of God

God would put them in a reigning position

A position of being in charge, a leading position

Rather than a following position or a position of being owned

And it says and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today

To the right or to the left to go after other gods to serve them

Now I'm fully aware that this passage of scripture could come off like a lot like a health and wealth gospel passage

It would be very easy for us to say that because it is grace, bless you, because it is grace

We will always be blessed

Everything that we will do will be blessed

We'll have blessed produce this, blessed produce that

We'll have more kids, we'll have better kids, we'll have more money from our jobs

Better money from our jobs, better positions, better recognition in the world

All of that could be found in that passage of scripture

But to preach it as a health and wealth message would be to divorce it from what is actually being displayed

Number one, that God is calling us to obedience

This is not a message about obedience, but clearly God says

If you will be diligent, he says in the first part

If you will be careful, he says in the last part

If you will be diligent and careful to follow that which I have commanded you

Then he would do the things that he said he would do

So there is a requirement of faithfulness and obedience to God's people

Which is not found in the health and wealth gospel

This truth that God is laying out for them required them to be his people

If you'll recall from last week, we talked about the promised land and how the promise creates a people

And now God says if you will actually be the way my people are supposed to be

I will tell you what I'm going to do for you

First and foremost, notice that grace of God lifts up a people

Grace of God lifts up a people

Graceland is occupied by a people lifted up

This Israel was slaves in Egypt

Previously to that, they were essentially nomads

They wandered around everywhere, they would sink a well occasionally

But by and large, they did not have a settled home ever

No land, no people identity

They could trace their lineage back to certain key forefathers

But no identity of people

In fact, even when they would come into the promised land

One of the tribes would be split down between the two sons of Joseph

So even the twelve tribes were not unified at all previously

Because one of them was living completely in Egypt as a descendant of Joseph

And the other eleven were living in Goshen in Egypt as descendants of their forefathers

So the tribes were not even united in any way shape or form

And God would take a people disunited, scattered throughout Egypt

Haul them out of a nation that had so many gods

And so many powerful gods and so many chariots of steel

And warriors in bronze armor and spears and swords by the tens of thousands

And God would call them out of that nation and make of them one nation

And then give them a land

Listen to me, that is grace

In Hosea, the prophet Hosea in 11.1 he basically says

And out of Egypt I called my son

So God would not only haul them out of Egypt and make them a new land

Unified together where they were completely disconnected previously and in slavery

And previous to that nomads wandering around having no place

Not only would God call them out, but he didn't just call them his people

He called them his son

And just as today we can be sons and daughters of the living God

They would be sons and daughters of the living God

But they were not getting it because they had a bloodline

They were not getting it because they were faithful in the disciplines or in work or whatever

They were getting it because of grace

God was giving them grace

It can be confused because it says

If you will diligently obey the Lord your God

Being careful to do all his commandments which I command you today

The Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth

And so we're thinking God is making a deal

This is the deal

If I will follow the rules

Then God will set me up victorious

And the truth is if you follow the rules some of them are so good

And they make so much sense

That you will actually prosper

In just following the rules of God

And the people that do that

They tied their whole life with never having a relationship with Jesus Christ

And their finances are blessed

The people in Malachi did not have a relationship with God

They were being corrected about not tithing

And even when they began tithing

That the prophet Malachi was talking to

They didn't suddenly become rich

But they were blessed over the years and over the generations

If they were faithful and they were not blessed if they were not

But they didn't have a proper relationship with God either

The point is you can follow the rules

And you may be blessed and get certain things

They do make a lot of sense

For example if you treat your body as a holy temple

Working out, eating right, drinking plenty of water, making sure you get plenty of sleep

Staying away from any more medications than you actually need to

And so if you treat and you don't get into addictive substances and all of that

Your body will do better

Nothing says you won't get hit in a car accident at 40

And be paralyzed for life

But your body will do a lot better

Because you're following the logical steps of recognizing your body as a temple

But if you want your body to actually be a temple

You get that from God and you get it by grace

You cannot earn it, you cannot trade for it

Graceland is filled with the people that God lifts up

Yes, God promised to lift people up

And here he reminds you if I have lifted you up

If I have provided you with grace

Then you have a responsibility to behave a certain way

That's true

My child behaves a certain way

A dad will say to his son, we don't do that son

And what he means is this activity that you're engaging in here

It's inappropriate

We don't want this to happen

I don't do it, I don't want you to do it

Another dad will say son we don't do that

And he'll go over there and do what it is that he does

Even though his son's not supposed to do it

In many cultures it's perfectly okay for anybody over the age of about 16

To spew as many cuss words as they want

But anybody under the age of 16 that uses a foul language

Might get backhanded by their mother

You're not old enough to talk like that

The standards are varied from people to people

I get that

God is saying be diligent and careful to follow my commands

Because I have lifted you up

You are my people

And I will show you how I have lifted you up

And I will bless you in all things

Now our church has been immensely blessed

In many many things

In fact, and I'm not judging anybody

And I'm not telling any stories

But if you were God and you could look at the folks that have struggled in various areas or whatever

They have struggled by choices that they have made in some times

Sometimes the choices that they have made have kept them from going to the places where God is taking them

Grace lifts up a people

You may not believe in grace

You may not believe that God wanted to save you so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you

That would be a mistake

You may not believe that God wants to lift you up from wherever you are

And make of you something that will bring him great glory

Now that can include martyrdom

Which is a terrible thought

It can include persecution for witnessing or struggling being a missionary in a foreign country

Where you don't have things like cell service

Or a grocery store within 50 miles

You've got to grow your own food

Where you're dodging soldiers to AK-47s to tell people about Jesus

Or sneaking Bibles behind enemy lines

That might be the kind of thing that God calls you to

But that would be an amazing thing to be called to

God's grace lifts up a people

The brother of Jesus, James, wrote it this way in chapter 4 in the book of James

He wrote

Or do you think the scripture speaks to no purpose?

He jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us

That he gives a greater grace

Therefore it says God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble

Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you

Cleanse your hands you sinners

And purify your hearts you double minded

Be miserable and mourn and weep

Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom

Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you

And this was written to Christians

To people who were claiming to be Christians anyway

So what he's saying to us is

Listen, I have given you grace

I have lifted you up

Behave like somebody I have lifted up

Oh you continue in sin though I have lifted you up

Mourn, realize that you're blackening our family name

God's grace lifts up a people

And in lifting up a people

He can reasonably have expectations of how we as a people ought to behave

Second thing to see in there is that the blessings of grace

Pursue the people of grace

The Bible says in the book of Proverbs that

A wicked man runs when nobody is chasing him

The truth is we all feel like there's something sort of chasing us in the human race

Poverty, bankruptcy, disease, age

Not about any one particular person

But when I was raising my daughters

Amalia and Alicia I told them I said

Up until a certain point I said you know we don't wear makeup

You don't wear makeup

And they said well why not

And I said well why do people wear makeup

You know why people wear makeup right

There's really two reasons I mean unless you count geisha girls

But other than that there's really two reasons

They wear makeup to look older

They wear makeup to look younger

Now it may be that they're covering a certain facial blemish

Or something you know that they want to

Maybe they're going on camera and they want the camera to reflect on them better

But in their case it was they were wearing makeup to look older

And you don't need to do that

And then when we get older and they wear makeup to look younger

The truth is they probably don't really need to do that

They can there's nothing wrong with it

There's nothing sinful about it

But my wife for example she'll come to me at the end of the day

And she'll say oh I totally forgot to put my makeup on today once in a blue moon

And I'll say you look beautiful all day

All day

And I'm not judging anybody for using makeup

But what I'm saying to you is the blessings of grace are pursuing us

And we're concerned about the things of this life

And we take certain steps

I'll give you another example

People let their health decline

Right?

We get overweight

We get high blood pressure

We have struggle focusing because we malnourished ourselves

Eating too much junk

Things like that

I did that

I have done that

I've done it in the last couple of weeks

Okay?

So the point is we do that

And then we go oh my goodness I've got to work really hard

And for a period of time we die

We work out

We do everything that we're supposed to do

And if we have faithfulness and strength

We stay the course until we get our health where we want it to be

But the truth is why did we need to do that?

We needed to do it because we first disparaged or let go that which was in us

We first our bodies burning fuel all the time

Everything you eat is burning

And anything that isn't good for you

It's either storing in fat to protect you

Or putting it out in excrement one or the other to get rid of it

Your body has a natural ability to maintain you at whatever weight you're supposed to be

And it might not be what the doctor says is your ideal weight

But the bottom line is we have that

Then we go back and work really hard to catch up

Here's what's happening in the world folks

The blessings of God's grace are pursuing God's people all the time

And God's people are literally running away from those blessings

Or playing hide and seek from those blessings

Part of that is because we have mistaken what the blessings are

We think the blessings are the trappings of this world

Praise of human beings, more income, more friendly experiences with people

To saying good things to us

Or we saying good things

Laughing and joking, reminiscing about whatever until the middle of the night

These are not the blessings that God is talking about

Yes, they're blessings

These things, Galatians 6 says, were given to us to enjoy

And that's fine

But guess what happens when you over enjoy them

While you're over enjoying the blessings of this life

You're running away from the blessings of grace that God has given you

You understand?

Many, many years ago now, 22-ish years ago

The Lord convicted me to give up first soda and then candy

Now I'm not saying anybody needs to do that

This was in my own life

In fact, if I could at this point in time eat an occasional piece of candy

I would love to do it

If I would eat, you know, whatever

So you feel free to do as you would

But I just want to use it as an illustration for the moment

After I gave up the soda

I got to eating a lot of candy

The candy tasted really good

And I was using it to supplement to get around the caffeine

And then after I gave up the candy

The next weekend I had like a cupcake on Friday night

And I said, that's the best tasting cupcake I've ever had in my life

And I didn't make the connection

And then about noon, one o'clock or something, we had brownies

I had a brownie and I said, that's the best tasting brownie I've ever had in my life

And you'll hear me say as I sit down

In fact, the day before yesterday I had smoked pork loin

That's the best tasting meat I've ever had in my life

Okay, and you'll hear me say that on occasion

That it's the best

Well, I can taste what I eat now

When I used to drink a lot of soda

And I drank a lot of soda

You may not drink as much soda ever in your life as I used to drink

I would kill two liters of soda in a day, every day

I'd eat a bag of donuts

And also when I gave up the soda

I was eating over a pound of hard candy every day

You may never do that in your life

I hope that's never your situation

But the bottom line is I was eating so much sweets

That my taste buds could not taste the food

I couldn't eat a salad to me

Lettuce had no taste

If you can, you know, like I eat lettuce and it has no taste

Well, it's probably because your taste buds are not doing what they're supposed to be doing for whatever reason

So I could eat salad lettuce and it would go

That's nothing

It literally had no taste to me at all

And after I gave up the soda and the candy, I started having taste

Right? Now I'm not saying that you need to make adjustments like that

What I'm saying is we get involved in things

And we miss the thing that is pursuing us

We chase relationships with people

And miss out on the prime relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ

God is trying to say something to you

Wants to say something to you

Wants to do something in your life that is powerful

It is a blessing that accompanies His grace

You understand that all of us, any of us here

Could be missing a significant Holy Spirit gift

The Bible says the Holy Spirit gives us gifts

That we're spiritually gifted

And you could be missing the cheap Holy Spirit gift

That God has authored in you from the moment you were saved

You might be acting in your Holy Spirit gifts in other areas

You might say you have four

And you have three of them firing on all cylinders, right?

How's that work out for you, RJ?

If you've got a four-cylinder car firing on three cylinders

And all three cylinders are working perfectly

How's that car run?

The fourth one doesn't work

It'll run, but it won't run right

Exactly, it'll run, but it won't run right

There are blessings that come with the grace

That are literally pursuing us

And we're not experiencing them

Because we're busy dwelling on the ones that we already have

Considering ourselves to be well enough off

Counting our worldly blessings

And you should do that because you need to be grateful to God

I'm not saying that

But we get so wrapped up in that

That we don't recognize that God is trying to do something more

And then, sometimes, God will do something to get our attention

When I was taking my revival class at Liberty Seminary

They said this is how revival happens

God's people faithfully do what God's people are supposed to do

Then God shakes up the world to make the world pay attention for a moment

They look and they look at God's people

And they see them still faithfully doing what they're supposed to be doing

And they flock to the church, flock to God's people, flock to God

Because here's a people faithfully doing what they were doing

The world shook and the people were faithfully doing what they were supposed to be doing

And the world looks at those people and comes and says

Well, what do you got that we don't got?

And that's the primary way that revival starts

Not the only way, but it's the primary way that revival starts

I submit to you, God does the same thing in a microcosm in an individual

God will give you trials and troubles and tribulations

He will put you, listen, if you won't listen to God

He'll take you to the place that you're in a pile of ashes

Scraping your swords with a shard with your wife standing over you saying

Just curse God and die to get you to understand that you are not God

And you don't get to say no to God

You don't get to say no to the blessings of God that come with grace

You don't get to put Him down or back Him off

He's God, He created you, orchestrated the borders of your life

Set you up to live where you live

He's God, He wants to do the blessings that come with the grace

And I understand sometimes those blessings are suffering

Sometimes they are trials and tribulations

Sometimes they are martyrdom

Sometimes they are hours and hours and hours of studying your Bible

Or worse, a Bible dictionary of theology

When I was in seminary and God had called me to preach and I knew it

I had to read this dictionary of theology that gave us a book that's like

Five times this thick and hardcover

And I couldn't stay awake, I just couldn't do it

You ask Jerry

I would take the book that I had to read

And I had to read about ten hours a week

I can't, outside preparing for my sermon

I struggle with ten hours a week reading my Bible

And this stuff was, and so and so

Plethora of John said this three thousand years ago about this

And stuff about people that you don't care about

What they said about it

Two thousand years, who cares what they said

Right, boring and written in boring ways

And big liturgical language I could barely understand

And so I would take the book and I would walk laps in my side yard

Around the perimeter of my side yard reading the book

And then I got tired after a while walking laps around my side yard

And I would walk the sidewalk in front of the shopping center

And the big, I walked to Bob Evans and I would sit there and I would eat

Whatever I ordered I would eat and read the book

And then after I got done eating I would get up and I would walk back home reading the book

You see me walking up and down Woodville Road reading the book

Right, it was the most boring time of my life

But I had to do it, I was required to do it

Because that's where God took me

And it was what God wanted me to do

Right, and I knew it was and that was what the professor assigned

And I knew I was supposed to do the work and honor God with my education

And you can list on all the reasons

But the bottom line is I would walk for hours a day

While reading something, and my legs hurt and my feet hurt

And I got tired

But I had to keep moving because I couldn't stay awake reading this boring material

Unless I did and I had to read it

Sometimes God's blessings will take you to a place where you don't really want to be

If you're judging it in the standard of the blessings of this world

But if you judge it in the standard of the blessings of Graceland

Do you want your basket to be full?

Do you want your kneading bowl to be blessed?

Do you want your offspring to be blessed?

Do you want people that hear from you to be blessed?

Do you want the world to look at you and go, what does he have that I might want to ask

In order that I might have what he has?

Do you want that?

If you want that, then you've got to stop running from the blessings of grace

And accept that and sometimes it sucks

I'm here to tell you right now

And this will hurt for some of us

The most traumatic, painful, sorrowful experience that you've ever experienced in your life

The thing that you went through that is the worst thing

That lasted a minute, a day, years, whatever

That thing, that is one of the blessings of God in your life

And the comfort that God comforts you with over that blessing

You will then be able to comfort others

But are you running from the blessings of grace?

You realize God says, okay I saw you there

You went through the crap

You went through the sludge

You were stuck there, I saw you there

And by grace I reached in there

And I pulled you out of there

And I'm prepared to set you up as a people

So that everyone can see

So that people will listen to you

They can be a person of character

So that people will go, oh, he spoke

Josh spoke, what did Josh say?

I want to know what Josh said

Ricky spoke, what did he say?

What does Ricky have to say about this?

People call you up on the phone and go, hey, I got this going on in my life

What do you have to say about that?

God wants to take you from the mire

And lift you up on the pedestal

You're like, I don't want to be on a pedestal

Yes, that would be an okay place to be

Because there you can very clearly give God all the glory

Right? But somewhere in between there

Running from the blessings that God has orchestrated

Out of that nastiness

Out of that terrible thing that you went through

Running from the blessings that come out of that

Bemoaning your situation, complaining, whining, frustrated

Letting, clamping down on your anger

So that when something happens you blow up

All of that

Instead of letting the blessings that God wants you to give you out of that thing

That's when God can set you up

And you'll become the head instead of the tail

Listen to me, if you're still wrapped up in suffering

If there are still things bothering you

If you're still hurting because of experiences that you went through in your life

Then you need to understand you are running from the blessings of God

You need to stop, the Lord says, be still and know that I am God

You need to recognize that that trial and tribulation that you've gone through

Is fueling you

It is making it possible for you to be the person that you are today

It is giving you strength that somebody else does not have

And you can receive the blessings of the grace that God intends for you

In the meantime, as a child of God

Be found doing the things that God has given you to do

Remember the example of revival that I gave you

God's people are found faithful

They follow what God has taught them to do

The world shakes

But instead of being shaken

God's people are found faithful doing what God has called them to do

They worship, they give, they practice the spiritual disciplines

They exercise their spiritual gifts the best they know how

But they are prepared

When we were at Cedar Street Baptist Church in Michigan

And 9-11 happened

And the Twin Towers came crashing down

And Americans began to realize that they were not safe

That on American soil they were not safe

Terrorists perpetrated terrorist activity

And people felt terror in their hearts

And they looked at the church

And our church had 125 visitors the following Sunday

Can you imagine? A church of 250 people

People were standing at the walls

No chairs to sit in on Sunday morning, second services when we usually went

People were standing there

And the pastor preached the sermon that he had scheduled almost a year before

He said nothing about the Twin Towers

He said nothing about the terrorist attacks

He did not preach a message that was expressly the gospel

Or salvation or about the cross

The gospel was hinted at

But it was out of Malachi

In fact, this breaks my heart to this day

I love the man, he was a very godly man

But I don't know what happened that day

Maybe the Lord was doing it

So I'm not judging

But here's what happened

The sermon was about we need money to build the new building

When the world comes looking

They need to stand you, see you standing on firm ground

See you're okay

See you're studying your Bible

See you're reading

See you're praying

See you're serving

See you're giving

See you're faithfully following the ministry lead of God

Doing those things

When you are rocked and still rocking

The rest of the world when it's rocked

Is trying to figure out how to be rocking

And they will look to you and your voice will resound

Right now, they come to us sometimes and we're like

Oh yeah, I had a rough day too

My foot hurts, my pain, I couldn't walk, I couldn't talk

I'm hurting in my relationships

I'm hurting in my finances

What are you doing?

They're coming to you complaining about their life in the world

You should be talking about Jesus

Talking about the blessings of grace

Talking about how yeah, that used to bother me

But it doesn't bother me

When I don't have enough money now

And I'm not saying this is me

I'm saying this is where we should be

When I don't have enough money now

That doesn't bother me

Because I know no amount of money can buy the relationship I have with Jesus Christ

When my health is failing me

That doesn't bother me like it used to

Because no amount of health is going to get me into heaven

You understand the body you're in today dies

And then you get a new body when you go to heaven, right?

So you've already messed this one up pretty good

You've used it, worn it out by now pretty good

When you go to heaven, you're going to get a new one

That's one of the blessings of grace

Unless of course you're still running from the blessings of grace when that time comes

And then you might have a problem

Because what if the blessings of grace don't catch up?

Grace lifts up a people

And that people is responsible to behave a certain way

The blessings of grace pursue the people of grace

And God will use things in your life to get you to stop running away from the blessings

And that's where Romans 8.28 says

When it says, all those who love the Lord are called according to his purpose

All things work together for their good

The reason that is is because you can't imagine

You're like, I don't understand how this thing that God's letting me go through

Or what I'm going through right now can be used for my good

But God can

And maybe it's just designed to get you to stop for a moment

To think for a moment

To accept for a moment

That God is pouring out into you some kind of a blessing

And you've been going, no, it's okay

My cup is full enough

And God sends something to rock your world a little bit

To get you to go, okay God, what is it you want to do next?

The blessings of grace pursue the people of grace

Now, the devil like a lion stalks around seeking whom he may devour

Which he can only do because the people of grace sometimes

Kind of hide toward the edges because they don't want to be a martyr

They don't want to be used too much

They don't want God to use the painful experiences

They just want to forget about it

I went to refocusing at East Toledo Baptist Church not long after we moved back to Toledo

And I sat across from a man who was a deacon, had been a deacon for over 20 years

And one of the activities we were supposed to do was look at our lives

And what we've been through

Painful experiences, good experiences, whatever

And then see what God was doing through those things

And then as a church we were going to combine all that and decide what God was doing in our church

And this man who was a deacon, had been a deacon for over 20 years

Said to our little group, there's like six of us in there

He said, I'm not going to do this activity

I said, what do you mean you're not going to do this activity?

And I was leading our little group even though I was probably not qualified

And he said, the things that I've gone through in my life are so bad

I don't like to think about them

And nobody needs to know them

And so I'm not going to tell you what happened in my life back

Before I got saved or after I got saved or whatever

I'll tell you what's going on right now, that's it

I don't look into the past

And I thought to myself, there's a man who hasn't dealt with this past

He's not free

And if you're not free from your past

If you're not free to use your past for God's glory

Then maybe it's because you don't realize that grace lifts up a people

And the blessings of grace pursue the people of grace

The last thing to see here then is that grace sets apart a people

Interestingly enough, as James said, there is a greater grace

It's kind of like two steps, right?

Grace sets up a people, lifts them up out of slavery, makes a people

Flows out of the promises of God

The blessings of grace then pursue that people

They want to cascade down on you

They want to change your life in ways that will honor the Lord and bring you closer to God

And when that happens and you submit to the blessings of God's grace

Then God will set you apart

He will identify you with His grace and with the grace giver

See, you go to work, go to school

Do the people in your work and at your school identify you with the grace giver?

Do you wear Christian t-shirts all the time?

That's what that's all about, by the way

So that people, when you wear Christian t-shirts, people will go, oh, that person must be a Christian

I submit to you, you ought not to have to wear a Christian t-shirt to be known as a Christian

When I'm traveling out and about, wherever I see somebody wearing a cross, I'll say, I like your cross

And they'll usually say something, oh, thank you very much, whatever

And I'll say, are you a Christian? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ then?

Now, if there's a crucifix, then usually that means they're Catholic

Or maybe it means they don't know that Jesus didn't stay on the cross and he rose again on the third day

The crucifixion is done, but the Catholics use the cross with the Jesus on it

That's called a crucifix because they think that that is still going on

But it isn't, Jesus came down off the cross, was buried, rose again, now He's at the right hand of the Father in heaven

So we use an empty cross

It's different, but the bottom line is I can have that conversation with somebody and they wear crosses

Now you've got gang members who wear crosses and profess to be Christians with the kill people on Saturday

Or sell drugs or whatever

So they've got people who wear Christian t-shirts because they've got them at the goodwill, but they're not a Christian

So maybe the best way for people to know to whom you belong is for you to be bringing grace into the situation

So here's the math, God by grace lifts you up and makes you a people

Takes you from where you were to be who He wants you to be, gets the process started

You realize that the blessings of grace are following you, stalking you, trying to get you, trying to bless you

I'm not making that up right, it was in the text

And then those same blessings of grace flow through you to the world

You start thinking of your money, it's not really your money, it's God's money

Start thinking of your strength, it's not really your strength, it's God's strength

Start thinking of your mind, not really your mind, God's mind

When God owns all of this, then God can use all of this to do what it is that God wants to do

And by the way, what are we talking about that God is trying to do?

He's trying to deliver grace

He's trying to deliver grace, you should be a grace giver wherever you go

And the predominant way or the most important way to deliver that grace is through telling the gospel

What Jesus has done

Now unfortunately, not everybody is going to want to listen, I get that

We went on our vacation trip and we're blessed to go to the US Virgin Islands and then to Florida

Went to Florida, US Virgin Islands, Florida, stayed a little bit and came back home

As I was traveling, I told Sherry, I said, I'd like to just use my passport

I don't think they'll stamp it because we're not going out of the country

What everybody's like to use my passport

My passport is a unique identifier

It's like a driver's license, but a little bit different, a little bit better

It's about citizenship, you got to be verified

To whom do you belong? Where are you from?

Arden has a real ID driver's license

Meaning he can travel certain places using his driver's license that people would normally need a passport to go

And according to in 2025, they say if they actually pull it off because they've already backed it off twice

In order to travel, fly to another state in the United States of America

You will have to have a real ID driver's license or a passport, one or the other

Why?

Because they want to know that you belong where you belong

I submit to you that if you can leave this place, if you can leave the church, if you can leave the mission

If you can leave the Sunday school class, if you can leave teaching the youth group

If you can leave the pulpit and go out in the world

And you can relate to people and there's nothing really different about you

And not people aren't wondering, why is that person being so nice?

Or why is that person sacrificing?

I understand you don't always have an opportunity to do something magnanimous or something huge

You don't always get to pay for somebody's groceries

You don't always get to give a tip at the drive-thru or better yet, pay for the person behind you

You don't always get to do those things

And some people do those things who are not Christians, I understand that

But if you have a pattern of doing something with your money, with your time, with your strength, etc

That's a little different

Someone who is observing you may begin to wonder

To whom do you belong?

That's right, and so to whom do you belong? Where are you from?

And I ask you, to whom do you belong?

Where are you from?

You do realize if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are from Graceland

That's where you are from, you did not earn it

You didn't get saved because you prayed a prayer

Because you committed your life to Christ

That's not why you got saved

You didn't get saved because you repented of your evil work

So you should do that, you didn't get saved because of that

You got saved because Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for sins for everybody who will receive it

That means the worst person you know, the person you can't even stand to be around

Because they drive you absolutely nuts, they're rude, they're mean, they're foul

That person is just as likely to be saved right now in this moment

As you were when you got saved, or as anybody else

Adolf Hitler, Jeffrey Dahmer, right?

They were all just as likely to be saved as anybody else

All they have to do is recognize there's something missing in them for an eternity with God

And accept the something that God is offering, and He will lift them up

The truth is, Adolf Hitler is no more wicked a man than I was when I was 24 years old

You say, oh that's not true, he killed thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people

He brainwashed a nation and supporting people

And they tried to take over the world essentially and tried to eliminate an entire race

That's way worse than you ever were

Now James 2.10 says, for he who keepeth the whole law and yet offends in one point, he is guilty of all

Which means if you ever lied, you're just as bad as the guy who fostered a holocaust

Grace, grace is when we get saved even though we don't deserve it

In fact, grace is when we receive any gift that we don't deserve

Like when I bad mouthed my mom on the 24th of December and still got presents the next day

That's grace, it's not mercy

Mercy is when you don't get the punishment you deserve, which we haven't gotten it yet

Even unsaved people haven't gotten it yet

Grace is when you get what you don't deserve, and what was that?

God lifts you up from where you are and puts you in Graceland, pursues you with the blessings of grace

Blessing you in so many ways, that is if you'll just stop running

Grace lifts the people up and there is an expectation

The blessings of grace pursue the people of grace

And grace then sets the people apart and identifies them and they become grace givers themselves

Identified with the grace giver

Notice this is not about a promise, until it is

It's not about a promise, because nobody's promised that they will be saved

The Bible promises that everybody will have a chance

But nobody's promised that they'll be saved

So it's not about a promise until it is

The promise is if you will accept the grace of God, the blessings of grace will pursue you

And God will set you apart as a people identified with the grace giver

It's not about holiness, that's next week, the Holy Land

It's not about holiness, I'm not saying to you, you must get everything right

Work diligently, be careful in order to be pursued by the grace of God

That's pre-Jesus

Now you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, become a Christian

And you will be pursued by the blessings of grace because you live in Graceland

That's what James was talking about

So now if you know you're in sin, weep, don't laugh it off

Get busy, do whatever it is that you need to do

Be the person that God has made you to be

And let Him set you apart as if you had a passport that says kingdom of God

And you're on a journey away from home

Which is the reality

Not just figurative language

And then notice finally, and this goes into our conclusion, that grace is the bridge

It is the bridge between the promise and holiness

Already lifted up, they were called to behave a certain way

And holiness builds in us and grows in us as we follow God

Do the things that God would have us to do, experience the things that God would have us to experience

Surrender to the blessings of grace as God pursues us with them

And he develops holiness in us

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

That's no form of holiness

The wages of that sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ

That is a form of grace

And Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly

And in that abundant life is holiness

That we'd be more like Him

Living on borrowed time

God said, in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die

That's what he told Adam and Eve

And then instead of them dying, he sacrificed animals and made them clothes

And sent them out of the Garden of Eden, protected them from the tree of life

That's grace

The Garden of Eden wasn't really Graceland

Because until they sinned, they didn't not deserve it

You see?

They think, well I want to go to Graceland, it's the Garden of Eden where everything is mine

And I can take care of it all the way I think I should

And I can serve God and everything's going to be fine

That's not Graceland

That's pre-fall

That's before they sinned against God

Then they sinned against God and God moved them out of the Garden of Eden

Out to where work would be hard

Out to where suffering would be real

Pain in pregnancy

Contention in marriage

Contention between man and man

Martyr could be a thing, death would actually happen

Listen to me

He moved them out of the Garden of Eden

After sin

Into Graceland

We live in Graceland today

It's borrowed time

What did they do?

What did the Israelites do that saved them from Egypt?

That called them out?

That made them a people?

That brought them into the promised land?

What did they do?

Did they worship God correctly?

Have you read the story of Joseph?

The story of Moses?

And what goes in between?

No!

No, they didn't

That's grace

You don't got to do it

But to get started in it, you got to stop running from God and just say, okay God, I'm yours

I'm going to do whatever you want me to do

And it means if I got to go through places that I don't want to be

I'm ready to do that

I don't want to run from the blessings of grace

Lift me up

And make me one of your people

And the blessings are great!

But also sometimes

They're hard

Peter was crucified upside down

Almost all of the disciples died for their faith

And they're in heaven with God for an eternity

So that's pretty good

I'm asking you today to recognize that we live in Graceland

That God will lift us up if we will allow it

That the blessings of grace pursue the people of grace

And that grace will set us apart as a people for folks to look to

Because we belong to Him

365 days a year

Not just 11 days at the end of April or May

Beginning of May

But 365 days a year

Borrowed time

Living on trespass land

Where we deserve the punishment that we get

We deserve the suffering that we go through

We deserve hell for an eternity

But because of Jesus we receive grace

Father help us recognize this reality

And stand out in every crowd

Everywhere that we go

Everything that we do

Would be different

In the midst of trials and tribulations that we would cease to run

And say, okay God

Do whatever it is that you want to do through this

Help us

We were previously not a people, didn't even have access

And yet

By the grace, not by the works that we would do

Not through spiritual disciplines or hard work or service

But by your grace

We have been saved

Use us and bless us as your people

In Jesus name

I also praise you to come forward at this time

We have a closing hymn

This is our song of meditation opportunity

To make some kind of a decision

I would ask you today

If you are here and you're a Christian

I want you to make this intentional decision

In your life that it works so deep

That you will stop running