The Power of Grace: Finding Your Place in God's Plan

Well, good evening.

Y' all sounded good tonight.

Thank you for being here in your place and if you would open

your Bibles to Roman Romans chapter number five.

Romans chapter number five.

We will begin there.

And just for a moment, I just want to share with you my heart for

just a second.

Many of you have come up to me and congratulated me, so I want to

thank you for that.

And this is a privilege and a lot to handle.

And so I'm going to ask that you pray for me.

Pray for me in this new position has taken over as for the

time being for the assistant pastor position.

And I just want you to know that this is not a one man show,

okay?

It's not a two man show or a three man show.

This is all hands on deck.

We need you.

We need you to find a place, find a gap and fill it.

We need you to see something and jump right in with a solution.

And so I'm going to ask you to help us, to help us accomplish the

things that God has already told us that he wants us to do.

It's to reach Haslett, Texas.

It's to, to share the gospel, to get the gospel around the world.

We have a job to do.

And I'm just going to ask you to find a place.

If you're already involved in other areas, can you do something

else?

If you're not involved in something, can you find a place to

serve?

And this is how we are going to get through this.

It is by the grace of God.

And by the way, I just want to say some of you have been very, very

nice.

I just want you to know I have no money to give you.

You come up with compliments, I have no money to give you.

But anything good that you see in me, it is a direct result of the

grace of God.

Okay?

And I want you to know that.

And that has led me to this passage here in Roman 5, Romans,

Romans 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 is Paul is explaining the benefits of the grace

of God in your life and in the church's life and how the grace of

God can affect and help and enable us to accomplish the things

that God has called us to do.

Right?

God has called you to do something right.

You know that you've been told your whole life or as long as you've

been in church that God has a plan for your life, for your life.

Do you know that?

Are you doing it?

Are you doing what God has called you while you are breathing

God's air?

Are you doing the work that he's called you to do so tonight.

Paul.

We're going to start off with.

Let's read a few verses here.

We'll read through 1 through 5 and then we'll pray and we'll begin.

The Bible says Romans, chapter 5, verse 1.

Romans 5:1

It says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we also.

By faith.

I'm sorry.

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace.

This grace.

It says.

It says wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory

of God.

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.

Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience

and experience hope.

And the hope and hope maketh not, maketh not ashamed because the

love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which

is given unto us.

Let's pray.

Lord, I need you tonight.

I ask that you would hide me behind the cross, Lord.

Fill my mind with, Lord, what I've studied and what you want me

to share tonight.

Lord, I pray that you prepare our hearts to hear exactly what you

have for us, Lord.

I pray that you would deal with us individually and as a whole,

Lord.

Accomplish that which we need to do, Lord.

Help us to see the things from your vantage point, Lord, so we could

do more clearly and better the things that you've called us to.

Lord, I've asked this in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right, so grace.

I love definitions of biblical terms.

And trying to understand the matter of grace is we don't have

time tonight to go over everything that grace, what is accomplished

by grace and what is grace.

So we'll hit some of the high points.

And so the definition that you probably have heard is Christ riches.

God's riches at Christ's expense.

Right?

And then if you know Brother Stewart, Brother Stewart would say

that grace is unmerited favor even unto enablement.

Even unto enablement.

Now I'll tell you my.

I like.

That's a very good one.

These are all very good, but one that I have written in my Bible

about what grace is.

Two words.

Grace is desire and power.

Desire and power.

Grace, the grace of God on your life will give you the desire

to do what God has called you and I to do.

Then the power is God enables us to do that which he's called us

to.

So for tonight I'm going to use that.

That grace is the desire and the power to do the will of God.

So what we need in any day, in any year, at any time is you and

I need grace to accomplish the Things that God has called us to,

right?

We need the grace of God.

Paul describes it, look at in verse two, it says, by whom we also

have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice

in the hope of glory, of the glory of God.

So just a little bit of context, you know this, but as a

reminder, Paul was in Corinth at the time and he was writing to

the church at Rome.

And you can read about it in Acts 18.

Paul had never personally been to Rome at this point of his ministry

and he was wanting to go to spread the gospel at Rome.

He wanted Rome to be the central place of the gospel.

You say why?

Well, I think because you've heard it, that all roads lead to

Rome.

What if the gospels there you can get the gospel to every place

in the world from Rome because every road leads to Rome, right?

So that was, I believe where Paul thought process came from.

And Paul had a deep burning desire to spread the gospel to the

point to where it wasn't just, wasn't just sympathy, right?

It wasn't just this desire, but he had a desire that had feet

on it.

It started to do things.

And his desire was to preach the gospel and to share and spread

the gospel.

So what he did is he started writing the book of Romans and he

is giving a comprehensive explanation of the Gospel and the

effects of the gospel.

And through verse, through chapters one through four and so

on, he has began to explain the inner workings of the gospel.

When I was younger, my grandfather was in a really bad car

accident.

He broke his neck and he was paralyzed.

And so I grew up sitting.

I was a five year old little boy.

I'd climb up on his lap in his wheelchair.

We would watch the morning news and Wheel of Fortune or whatever

was on afterwards.

And I would take his razor and I would shave his beard with it.

Why?

Because I wanted to take the razor apart and put it back together.

That was just something I like to do.

I like to take it apart.

Most of the things I took apart never got put back together.

But this razor I could.

And when I would sit upon my grandfather's lap, he would begin

to tell me about the glories of heaven and about how one day he's

going to get a new body and that he's going to be able to race

me and that he wants to race when we get to heaven.

I thought well that'll be great.

I want to get to heaven.

How can I get there?

He said, well, there's a problem.

Said grandpa, tell me the Problem?

What's the problem?

He said there can't be any sin in heaven.

Well, as a five year old little boy, I didn't understand it.

So later on, probably three months after I actually got to the

point, in my mom's bedroom, I said, I'm ready to be saved.

And on the corner of her bed, she opened her Bible and shared with

me the gospel.

And it's changed my life.

Right?

We're saved by grace.

It's not by works of righteousness which we have done.

It's according to his mercy that he saved us for.

By grace are you saved through faith?

Right?

So there's a saving grace is what I'm getting at is that you and

I, if you're saved tonight, you did not get saved based on the

merits that you have done, your good works, your bad works.

No, it's based on the character and nature of God that

He saved you.

That grace is what flows from God towards man.

It's the goodness of everything good in your life, everything

remotely good that you can think of is grace.

I mean, think about it.

You're saved by grace.

Well, the Bible says that we are to live by grace as well, and

we're also to grow by grace.

And so Paul starts to give this some context and that's what

I pray that we can look at for just a short time.

So look at verse one again.

It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace

with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the first, first point is that grace brings peace with God,

right?

That's salvation.

We are saved by grace.

The Bible here is using the word justified.

The word justified.

You've heard this many, many times.

But for the sake of review, it's good to hear it again.

Why?

Because truth never changes.

And this is truth that you and I need to withstand the things that

God has for us.

Because this is where you're going to go back to when the wind

starts blowing and the flood waters start rising and the storm

clouds start brewing.

You're going to need to come back to the point where you put your

faith and trust in Christ, because that is the grounding point

for the Christian.

Look what it says.

It says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace

with God.

There is now unity between you and God.

You and I cannot open enough doors.

We can't give all the money.

You can't join multiple churches, which that's not impossible

anyway.

But you, you can't do enough things to obtain God's favor.

You need to come to the saving knowledge, the Only way to come to

the saving knowledge of Christ is by grace.

It's by understanding your need for the Savior.

It's when you start to understand that your very nature,

the things that come out of you impure, they are.

They are.

Actually, the Bible says, look in verse 10 says, it calls us enemies.

Look at verse 10, it says, for if when we were enemies, we were

reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled,

we shall be saved by his life.

So it's not by works of righteousness.

This matter of justification is the act of God declaring a sinner

righteous.

Justification doesn't just mean forgiveness, which, yes, forgiveness

took place when you got saved.

God has forgiven you of your sin.

But let me remind you that there is no sin that can go unpunished.

All sin must be paid for at the school.

Okay?

We have excused and unexcused absences, right?

So if you have a doctor's appointment, you can get an excused

absence.

There's never a point where God can excuse your sin.

All sin must be paid for.

So what God did while he justified you, when God restored

your relationship and brought you into a good standing with God,

a right standing, he didn't just forgive your sins.

He is now crediting to your account the righteousness of God.

You and I, this is a good deal by the way.

You come to God with your sin, he will exchange it for his righteousness.

You come to God and admit that you're wrong, that your thoughts

are impure, and that everything about you is contrary

to God and his nature.

And God, who is rich in mercy, will say, I will receive you because

the exact way that you are, and I will forgive you of your sins.

And better yet, I will give you and credit to your account, my

own righteousness.

So, by the way, you and I are not saved because we say a prayer.

We're not saved because we join the church.

We're saved because Christ has fulfilled the law on your behalf,

that there was a man named Jesus who lived his life without

sin.

Perfect, pure and spotless.

Never thought a bad thought, never said a bad thing.

You know, I've said this before, but if he got a spanking

when he was a little boy, his mom was wrong because he did nothing

wrong.

And so what did God do?

God took that sinless account and he took it to the cross, took

it to the cross.

And there he willingly laid down his life, the innocent for the

guilty.

And that is what Paul is saying.

You have to have the foundational understanding of justification

or the rest of this passage doesn't make sense.

Look what it says.

If we don't properly understand that we have been placed

into a new standing with God, then verse three is a little hard

to understand.

Verse four, it's tough.

Look what it says.

Look at verse three.

It says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations.

Excuse me, Paul.

I'm sorry, can you say that again?

What are you talking about?

Are you talking about glorying in your problems?

In your trials and your sufferings and that someone let you

down?

That someone talk ill about you?

That someone wants to do you or your family harm?

And you are now talking about glorying in this?

Paul, are you okay?

Do you understand what you're saying?

He says, oh, yeah.

He said, because I understand what justification is.

And you and I, when we can make sense out of this world and

out of the things that we have to go through, which, by the way,

man that is born a woman is few days and full of troubles.

These people driving out here on 156 are dealing with the same

things you are.

They have the same problems you and I have.

They're let down, they're disappointed, they're frustrated

or whatever the case may be.

They're dealing with the same things.

But we.

The Bible says here, it says, but we glory in tribulations, knowing

that tribulations worketh patience and patience experience

and experience hope.

And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad

in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you.

So first we get peace with God.

This act of peace is this justification that you and I have

been made righteous in the sight of God, that we've been credited

for all the things that God has done in this life for you.

So that means if we were to take.

If we were to take your life and put it into video form and display

it tonight for everyone to see.

Don't worry, we're not going to.

Some of you are squirming a little bit.

Makes me uncomfortable.

I don't want you to know that.

But do you know what would happen if we did that tonight?

If this was God's view of your life?

We take my son, Brendan.

There's some things that he's done that he's not proud of.

He would tell you, but I remember the day when he accepted

Christ as his savior.

So now if we were to play his video up here, do you know what it

would say, what it would show?

It would show a man who is 33 and a half years old.

Who lived a perfect life, who never sinned in thought, word or

deed.

Because the blood of Christ has been shed for you and I.

We have been justified.

God can no longer see your sin through his blood.

Everything that you have done has been paid for.

It's been accounted for.

And God says, I'll take that deal every day.

If a sinner comes to me with his sin, I will exchange it for my

righteousness.

I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should

come to repentance.

By the way, that's the God we serve.

Aren't you glad that God is good?

Are you convinced solely that God is good and that the things that

happen to you are good?

Even the disappointments?

God?

Are you sure?

Well, when given proper context.

Look what it says in verse two.

It says, by whom we have received access by, by faith into

this grace.

Look at the next phrase wherein we stand.

Where are you tonight?

Are you standing in the light?

In the view that you've been justified before the supreme judge

of the universe?

That now you will not have to give an account for your sin?

That your sin has been paid for to the point to where not only

you won't get the punishment, but now you can receive all the blessings

of God.

You and I want the blessings of God so bad in our lives.

We pray for them, we plead for them.

We're happy to share with the world and our friends that God has

blessed us in different ways.

Sometimes that overshadows the point of who you are.

The point of who I am.

I've sinned against a holy and a righteous God.

It's amazing to me, as I think about through the Old Testament,

of how God appeared to man.

And you think of Isaiah's vision.

And when Isaiah saw the throne room of God, he said, woe is me,

for I am undone.

For I'm a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people

of unclean lips.

That response was, oh, no.

He bowed down before God, which I think was, of course, appropriate.

Then you get to the New Testament and the Bible says to come

boldly before the throne of grace.

Why?

Because God has imparted his nature upon you.

God has given you the things that you and I need to live out the

life that we need that he's called us to.

So this grace, this grace has accomplished justification.

It's accomplished a new standing before God.

But are you still standing there?

You see, the Christian life, I believe, no doubt, is difficult.

Brother Weatherby would say impossible.

He would say the Christian Life is impossible to live by yourself.

You and I cannot live this Christian life.

This life is impossible to which God has called you and I to

live without the Holy Spirit of God's work.

So I want you to look down at verse five.

Verse five says, it says, and hope maketh not ashamed because the

love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which

is given unto you.

Okay?

So keep that in mind that we're getting to the Spirit filled

life.

So before we get there, we'll make one more step back.

I want you to look through this for a second.

Look through Romans 5.

I want you to look at verse 9, okay?

Verse 9 says much more.

Then look at verse 10, halfway through it says much more.

Look at verse 15 midway through it says much more.

17, halfway through, much more.

Verse 20, all the way at the end, much more.

Paul is taking and he is king.

Comparing Adam in the Garden of Eden where Adam had perfect fellowship

with God.

Paul is saying that you and I, who has been justified by the finished

work of the cross, by the resurrecting in the ascended Christ,

we have it better than Adam did in the Garden of Eden that it's

better to live right here in Romans 5 than in the Garden of Eden.

Do you believe that?

Do you know the difference between the two?

Adam could sin and fall.

He did not have the blood of Christ covering him now upon salvation.

Now salvation was imparted after the fall.

Of course.

Yes.

Adam got saved the same way you and I did.

He was only looking forward to the coming of Christ, to the promised

Messiah, to God coming out and fixing this.

Adam got saved by grace, through faith, looking forward to

the coming Messiah.

He believed God and it was counted unto him righteousness.

So was Abraham.

But can you imagine, just for a moment, walking in the Garden of

Eden with God in the cool of the day, perfect fellowship with

the Creator, doing exactly what God has called you to do, fulfilling

God's will completely and then falling.

You know what I believe?

That it truly is better to live in Romans 5 than in the Garden

of Eden.

Because now when you and I fall, it's been paid for.

You do not ever have to give an account for your sin before God.

You have been justified now by being justified.

When we go through the trials of this life, when we're dealing

with struggles and heartaches and, and the things that make life

tough, we deal with it.

We could spend the rest of our time going around the room with only

a handful of us explaining the hardship that we have had the Loss

or the pain or the struggle, the trials that we've had to endure,

the decisions that were very, very hard to make, that we're not

taken lightly.

But here in verse 2, where it says wherein we stand.

The point that I'm trying to make is that you cannot make sense

of your trials without the foundational understanding of justification.

Your trials mean nothing if you.

If they have not worked you to the place to where you realize your

need for salvation.

Or maybe you're saved.

I believe most of us in here tonight would profess Christ as their

savior.

You're saved and man, things are good.

And then all of a sudden they're not.

Life happens.

Trials come.

I can tell you.

I can tell you one time I got a call at 4am saying that my daughter

was about to be delivered with an emergency delivery.

My daughter Emily was very sick when she was born.

She went through.

She had a blood disorder and went through a process called a cordiocentesis.

A cordiocentesis is a blood transfusion while the baby is in

the mother's womb.

Very bizarre.

I can't even.

When I say a needle this big, I mean, the needle might have been

this big.

It was huge.

And I had sit there with my wife as they are guiding the ultrasound

camera deal and the needle and trying to hit the umbilical cord

just right to give little Emily a blood transfusion because

she was on the verge of heart failure.

And I got a call.

My wife, they decided to keep her.

Her levels.

They were.

It's amazing medicine, the advancements of what we have, the

equipment that they have.

They were able to measure an artery in the brain, the velocity

of the blood flowing through that artery to see if she was anemic

or not.

And so they were monitoring that blood vessel in her brain and

they said it's flowing pretty fast, which means that the viscosity

is not thick enough of what it should be.

So her blood is thinning and we need to take her now.

So I rushed to the hospital, came in and they were ready.

It was full steam ahead.

It was happening.

There was no questions.

It was change and get in there and here we go.

And.

There's something about a dad not being able to do anything for

his kids.

I couldn't do anything.

I felt hopeless.

I said, God, save my little girl, do anything.

I need this little girl.

Help me help her.

I said, God, I don't know what to do.

How do I make sense of this?

This little girl is struggling to survive and I can't give her what

she needs.

I felt like in a sense of failure.

I didn't know how to.

How to help my little girl during that process.

Emily spent six weeks in icu.

In ICU with my wife.

They gave my wife a room on the opposite end of the hospital,

in the empty room to stay there.

My wife stayed there the whole time.

I had the other three kids and we all survived, by the way.

We had cereal and toast.

No, that's not a joke.

We had cereal and toast.

But for six weeks, my wife would get up after having surgery

and walk, I think, close to half a mile from one end of the hospital

to the other end to feed Jake every three hours or four hours.

That was a difficult time.

I was saved.

I knew that God saved me.

I knew that God loved me.

I knew that he had called me.

In fact, that was the point to where I had as a family.

We had already surrendered and moved to Texas to come to attend

Norris, to go to Bible school.

I said, God, I'm trying to do what you want me to do.

What are you doing?

This is going to keep me from getting to them to what you called

me.

It doesn't make sense, God.

There's times in our life where our life does not make sense

unless we view it from standing on the place of justification,

standing on our renewed relationship with Christ, that now

we have access to the Father at any time that we need to.

You know what God taught me through that?

How much I needed Him, Taught me that dependence is key.

How was I going to move to Texas, my family 1100 miles away,

and provide for them if I didn't have all the answers?

And God had to take me to the end of myself, to where I realized

I cannot do this, but God can.

Look, what he says here, it says, and hope maketh us not ashamed.

Verse 5.

Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Ghost, which is given unto us as a church.

We can sit here and we can say, you know what?

We need a better.

We need better programs.

And if we had Brother King, better bulletins and.

And if we had all the things that we need, then this would all

be better and we had better organization and all this thing.

I'm telling you that right now, God is not looking for a better

plan or a better process.

Ian Bound says, God is looking for better men while the church is

looking for better methods.

So men tonight, ladies too, but men.

Are you fully surrendered to the will of God, to your life, for

your life?

Are you being controlled by the Holy Spirit?

Of God.

Have you yielded yourself to the point to where you say, there

is nothing I can do but to surrender my all to the Savior?

And that is how you can make verse three make sense.

Not only so, but we glory in tribulations knowing that tribulations

worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope.

After going through a trial, you come out of it better.

I've told you before, I've grown more in the valley than I ever

have on the mountain.

We want to live on the mountaintop.

We want a life with no problems.

We want a life where everything is just perfect and we

know exactly what to expect.

It's scheduled.

Nope.

Hey, nope.

It's not time for that yet.

You got 30 more minutes.

No, but see, is that a life of dependence?

You see, grace goes this far.

This is the grace that you and I need to live out the life that

we've He.

We've been called to.

And by the way, we've all.

If you're saved tonight, you've been called to do something.

And I would ask you to search your heart tonight to ask God, am

I completely surrendered?

I'm preaching to myself up here.

I just thought I'd share it with you.

God has put me in a place that I cannot do this.

I can't physically, emotionally, spiritually.

This is.

This is tough.

But the grace of God will enable us.

God uses the Holy Spirit of God as his divine enabler.

And if you and I want the grace that we need to accomplish

the things that God has called us to, it is only by a surrendered

life.

It is only by completely, completely relying on Christ.

You will be reminded, and I will be reminded constantly of my

failures.

And I go back to the cross and Christ says, hey, I paid for that,

too.

I paid for that, too.

Tonight, I want you to.

I want you to think about your hardest day.

Think about your biggest struggle.

Maybe you were young.

Maybe you were older.

Maybe it was recent.

Maybe it was years ago.

I want you to think back to that time.

What did God teach you through that?

Did you come out better or worse?

Sometimes I want to know what's going to happen.

I really want to know.

Like, Lord, just tell me what's going to happen.

What should I do?

Where should I go?

He says, if I did, you wouldn't depend on me.

Through that hard time that you're thinking about, did you grow

closer to the Lord?

Did God put you in a position where you realized there was nothing

you could do?

I am convinced that God is in the business of bringing men to the

end of themselves.

What does that better than a trial?

Trials and tribulations have a way of reprioritizing your life.

Have a way of examining the things that shouldn't be there or

should be there.

I would encourage you tonight to be fully surrendered to the will

of God.

Don't be overwhelmed at the things you don't know.

Just know that you are resting with peace with God.

Your relationship with God is settled.

That word stand means established.

Means that your feet are firm in who and what he is.

And the person and work of Christ.

It's done.

And what you and I need is grace to accomplish his will.

So tonight, as you stand with me to your feet, as the piano begins

to pray.

Not pray, play.

I do ask that you would be in an attitude of prayer.

The altars will be opened.