Too Good to be True | From Head to Toe | Pastor Malachi Maillot

From me honor, call me by your heart again.

Surrender forever my soul cries out once I was broken, but you love my home.

Sin has no hold on me.

Cause your grace holds me out, and that grace holds the ground where the grave is where all my shame remains, left for dead in your wake.

You crashed those angel gates, you left no stone unchecked, you stepped out of that cray, shouldered me all the way.

Once I was broke you love my whole heart.

Sin has no hold on me.

Look where my chair is now Death has no hold on me.

Says, My grace holds you now.

You are safe in my hands now.

My grace holds you now.

You are no longer forgotten because you are right here in my heart.

My grace holds you now.

Hallelujah Lord.

Thank you, Jesus.

Here I stand now.

Here I stand, high and surrender I need you now.

Hold my heart now and forever my soul cri.

Just lift our hands this morning.

Here I stand high and surrender I need you now Hold my heart now and forever my soul cries out here I stand high and surrender I need you now All my heart now and forever my soul Here I stand here I stand high and surrender I need you now and forever my soul Christ once I was broken you love my house Sin has no hope on me Mr.

Christoph's me now feel the forgiven heal them forgive Look where my chin is not now Death has no hold on me Christoph's background and your grace holds me now grace holds me now's me now Christos You didn't forget Look where my children Jesus you know anything more than anything that you can do what I just want Just want to I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions I'm sorry when I just sing another song take me back to where we started Lord I open up my heart to you Lord I'm sorry when I've come with my agenda I'm sorry when I forgot the Urana Lord take me back to where we started I open up my heart to you I'm caught up in your presence I just wanna sit here at your feet I'm caught up in this whole mess I never wanna leave oh I'm not here for blessing Jesus you don't owe me anything more than anything I you can do I just want you I just want you and nothing else and nothing else and nothing else will do Lord I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else will this is our cry I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else will do Lord I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else we beat you nothing else let's do it again nothing else nothing else nothing else will do I just want you nothing else come on this more let's press it nothing else nothing else will do I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else to do I just want nothing else nothing else nothing else will do I just want you oh death could not hold you and death could not hold you the veils home before you silence the boast of sin and gray oh the heavens are roaring the praise of your glory for you our race to life for again oh you have no eye you have no me forever Yours is the king yours is the body your sister what a powerful name it is what a powerful name it is the name of Jesus Christ might what a powerful name it is nothing can stand against what a powerful name it is the name of what a powerful what a powerful name it is what a powerful name it is the name of Jesus Christ what a powerful name it is nothing can stop it what a powerful name it is a name of Jesus what a powerful name it is a name of Jesus what a powerful name it is a name of Jesus powerful powerful Isn't God good come on make some more noise one more time for the name of Jesus the powerful name the name above every other name the name the righteous run to and are saved the name to which every knee must bow the name that's above sickness the name that's above anxiety that powerful name of Jesus the name that's above the trouble going on in your home the name that's above the problems in your marriage the name that's above whatever's going on with your kids the name of Jesus there's something powerful when that happens when we just start to say God you're above it all you're the name above all names you're Jesus you're my redemption you're my salvation God what nothing else in the world will do I'm calling upon the name of Jesus the Bible says when we call upon his name we're saved do you have things in your life this morning that you need to be saved from do you have things that maybe you feel stuck in that I want to encourage you even as the band plays that we can take just a moment to lift up our voice to lift up our hands to call upon that powerful name for whatever's going on in your own life whatever's going on in your friend's life can we call upon the name of the Lord on that powerful name I believe something happens the atmosphere shifts as we just lift the name of Jesus above everything else and we're just gonna let the band play and I want you to call upon that powerful powerful name we lift your name up this morning God we thank you that you are a shelter that the righteous can run to so we run to your name this morning God we say when nothing else will do when nothing else in the world has anything to offer us God we run to your name we run and we thank you that we're safe that there's safety in your name so this morning God we just lift your name above everything else we lift your name above every distraction we have we lift your name above every anxiety we feel God we just lift your name in this place and believe that when you are lifted up everything else falls into place everything else must bow every anxiety must bow every worry must bow every sickness must bow every problem must bow to the name of Jesus so we lift your name up King Jesus we honor you in this place we give you glory in this place God and we look forward to just the testimonies of what happens God as we place you first and foremost and we give you all the glory in Jesus' name everybody said amen say hello to a few people while you sit down and we're gonna get welcomed Pastor Malachi how are you guys doing this morning is Malachi uh I'm one of the pastors here at uh thank you Brian uh I'm one of the pastors here at KCC if you don't know me uh I'm excited to share with you this morning and continue uh our series on too good to be true if you guys have been enjoying uh this too good to be true series that Pastor Brody's been taking us through um we've been talking a lot about uh our doctrine and theology and uh uh really what doctrine is and just what we base our beliefs on and we base our beliefs on the teachings of Jesus.

Amen and so I'm excited to talk to you guys this morning uh we've we've kind of covered a few topics uh we've talked about the power of sin and and the power of salvation that actually conquered since Pastor Dave spoke about that uh we talked about redemption and we talked about how Jesus came in to the to the slave market and he pulled us out and he pulled us in and set us into a place where everything that we had lost we get to gain back because of because of Jesus and what he did for us.

And then Pastor Brody spoke a lot about unity and that was just a fire message.

That was amazing uh about how we are better together and then last week uh Pastor Brody spoke another amazing word I've just been so uh excited to kind of be in the church that we have like an amazing lead pastor that just he really does hear from God and uh I just was so excited about about this topic and he talked about uh God using our our brokenness for blessing and it was such a it was such an introspective word that just kind of changed uh even my perspective and this morning I want to kind of tag on to that uh I idea not not the exact same message because that would be uh weird and kind of awkward but uh I'm gonna I'm gonna basically follow after uh this story that that he spoke about in Matthew 14 Matthew 14 22 in the New King James we're just gonna kind of jump right into it and uh and the story of of how Jesus he was he was going away to pray he was going away to be secluded uh and and what it what had happened and and why he was doing this is that he actually lost one of his good friends uh John the Baptist was basically he was executed by King Herod and uh and Jesus was going away to essentially mourn he was essentially going away to to kind of get away from everything and just have a moment with him and his father and as he's going away all of a sudden some people some people recognize him and they're like hey that's Jesus and they and they start crowding around him and then thousands and thousands of people start going around Jesus and and he's just trying to mourn and and what Jesus could have done is just been like no like guys I just I need a minute I just need a minute but instead he had compassion and he started teaching this 5,000 plus group of people and then uh he he taught all day essentially and then uh at one point they started to get hungry and the disciples came up to him and was like yo like these people are getting really really hungry you've been talking all day it's been like one of those old style church services that went for like five hours come on like we need to feed them some lunch like can we send them away because we don't have any money first of all we don't really have any any food.

And so Jesus tells him he's like well what do we have and uh and this is kind of what Pastor Brody spoke about last week about using our not enough and and Jesus took the not enough the the basket of lunch that the little boy had uh that was not enough to feed 5,000 plus people and he and he turned it into having enough and more than enough and they actually had some left over it says and so this is where I want to jump into is right after this miracle taking place in Matthew 22.

Are you guys ready?

Some of you are that's okay we'll get there.

So in Matthew 22 or 1422 it says immediately Jesus made his disciples go into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away so and when he sent the multitudes away he went up to the mountain by himself to pray.

And so he finally gets this alone time that he's been seeking right and so and it and he says while he was alone there the boat was in the middle of the sea being tossed by waves and w and the wind was contrary which is to say that the waves and the wind was just kind of it was a little bit stormy okay and now the fourth watch of the night uh and now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them walking on the sea which people don't usually do when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled and they they cried out in fear it's a ghost and they were started to scream uh not like little girls because that's kind of offensive but they started to to get ex like terrified because there's a dude walking on the water and and people don't do that so they they just thought oh it's a ghost for sure and then immediately Jesus spoke to them saying hey be of good cheer it is I don't be afraid like I don't think that would help me be of good cheer it is I don't be afraid thank you Jesus um but Peter answered him Lord if it's you command me to come out onto the water to you and and so Jesus is like alright man like come out to the water and and Peter steps out of the boat he walks on water to Jesus but when he saw that the wind was boisterous what a word uh he was afraid and it began to sink and he cried out Lord save me and immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said oh you little faith why did you doubt and and he brought Peter back to the boat and as soon as they got back in the boat the wind ceased and then uh those who were in the boat became and worshipped him saying truly you are the son of God and then they reached their their destination they they crossed over and and then when they got to that place they got to the place that I can't pronounce when when these men of this this little town recognized Jesus they started swarming him again and he they began to bring all who were in the region who are sick and said and then they begged him that they might touch the hem of his garment and as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

And the the title of this message I want to I want to speak to you guys this morning is is called From Head to Toe.

Can you guys say it with me?

From head from head to toe and I want to talk about this idea and it's it's it's a rather it's a rather large idea and I and I don't think I can cover every every base of it but I want to just kind of simplify it this morning I want to talk about grace this morning and uh and I want to give you guys a definition to start with and we're gonna pray the definition of grace is this grace is the unmerited undeserved unearned kindness and favor of God.

Would you guys say that with me?

The unmerited undeserved unearned kindness and favor of God and in other words uh this is a very Christian easy way to say it uh but the gift of righteousness through the person of Jesus from head to toe.

Can we pray together?

Father God I just thank you for this morning I thank you so much for this time of uh just lifting up your name and God lifting our eyes to you and lifting our our our voices to you God making you great this morning so God we just ask that you would just soften our hearts this morning to receive uh what you want to speak to us God that this morning we would grow in community as well as closer to you in Jesus' name if you agree with that say amen amen how many of you uh how many of you grew up with like like a family tradition anybody like you your family had a tradition maybe you uh maybe you go on a trip every year together uh I know it's family day weekend you're probably thinking about well what are we gonna do on family do we go on a hike or uh maybe you maybe you go to lunch after s after church today and that's like your little family tradition or you're like the really weird families uh that I'm super jealous of when I was a kid that opened their Christmas on Christmas presents on Christmas Eve.

Did anybody in this place?

Yeah the other weird families I I wish I was like you because I remember as a kid I was really uh impatient and my my parents were trying to teach me patience by making me wait uh but now that I'm older I get to choose what I do so that they couldn't stop me.

In my in my family um we had this tradition we had this tradition and it sounds kind of silly coming out of my mouth today but we we had this tradition it was called bowling sundae.

Bowling sun anybody anybody bowl anybody like a pro bowler here they got a few like anyone actually like good at bowling no one wants to admit that this is so embarrassing.

I'm absolutely terrible bowling but I I remember uh it was once a month once a month we would me and my family we would go bowling and we call it bowling sundae it was the best thing ever uh I was about 11 or 12 at this time in this story and so bowling sundae came around and uh and we we would usually we would sometimes go with another family and uh the family we'd usually go with was the Barendrats the Barendrat family uh and they were they were just awesome this awesome family so we go to church we go to church church comes around and uh and then church ends at like after five hours not just kidding but did anybody grow up in a church that was like really really long like really long services like more than two hours and by the end of it by the end of it you could eat anything like you were so hungry it was like you fasted that morning it was like a forced fast like when communion came around I remember as kids they would they would have the communion out at the at the front of the uh at the front of the church at the end of the service and and me and my friends we'd be like doing shots of communion and we would like rip the bread apart and just be like hunkering it down until we got to go eat and so yeah this is how I grew up so church church ends right church ends after at like two o'clock uh sometimes three uh and uh and so we go we go over to the Barendrats for lunch and I I the Barendrat family was my favorite family to hang out with as a kid um not only because my sister would leave me alone because they had a daughter about her same age and so they would they wouldn't bug me they would just go watch like Black Beauty or something.

Did anybody ever watch that movie?

That's a throwback um I hated that movie but but better uh a better part of it was going to the Barandrafts my sister would leave me alone um but they had a son named Adrian now Adrian Adrian I thought he was really really cool because he was he was obviously he was a bit older than me uh he always had like the funniest jokes and he was a bit of like a wild card and so I got to do things with him and we got to do we would usually get into trouble but like I got to do things that I didn't get to do at home right like it set off explosives and like burn little stuffed animals and that's kind of what got me.

You guys heard about my my incident where I set my lawn on fire and and all those things.

So that's where that all started so you can thank Adrian and uh and I don't know if you ever watched Toy Story and this is kind of what you could equate him to uh that he was like the the the Sid yeah Sid from the from Toy Story.

He was a little bit nicer he wasn't as evil uh but anyways Adrian was awesome so we we had lunch at the Barendratz right you guys are gonna be wondering where this is going but I'll get there.

We had lunch at the Barendrats and uh and lunch was done the parents were just doing the parent thing where they hang out and they drink coffee and all the boring stuff that I like to do now.

And the sisters were of course watching Black Beauty and uh and so Adrian's like hey let's go let's go like I got an idea and so usually when Adrian had an idea it usually ended up with uh both of us being grounded by the end of it and uh and so but I didn't care because he was just way too cool so I just always went along with whatever Adrian wanted to do.

So Adrian says hey uh there's this big field down the road we should go we should go take we should go take some like toys and we'll like tie like strings around their necks and we'll just like run around and drag them around what do you think and I'm like what an idea right like what are we waiting for?

That's every guy's dream to do this right so we we go down to this field or walk down to the field and uh I got these like big gum boots on and uh and we get down to the field and what Adrian didn't really tell me was this whole field was just like like a mud pit.

Okay so if you understand where I grew up I grew up in Smithers.

Smithers was literally built on a swamp and uh and so this was like a really marshy area and so what they they'd been actually developing this field and so over the winter it froze and then in the springtime which this is what when it was it all had melted and if you've ever seen like that kind of scene it's just like mud is just everywhere the whole field is just mud and I remember just like getting to the getting to the field and being like hesitant right and I was like well I don't know about this Adrian like should we should we do this and he's like well what why are you so hesitant?

What what do you mean like let's do this this is gonna be awesome we're gonna torture some toys and so uh I didn't need counseling after this at all uh but we were standing at the field and I looked down I was like well my mom my mom just bought me these new pants and uh and they're my church pants and and she'll she'll end my life if I get them dirty.

And he's like oh it's fine you got you got gum boots on we'll be fine it's not that bad.

It's not and I was like okay you know okay and so we're like we're stomping around we're like running around like hey like dragging like dragging like this is weird.

We're dragging these toys by a string in the mud and we're laughing and for some reason this is fun.

Like I don't I don't remember why but I feel like guys are just that simple.

And uh but I remember just like this is the best Adrian's the best and I took a step and my foot just like sunk.

Yeah that's the noise I made and I and I sunk into the mud and then I was like oh no like and and this fear hit me uh and fear of my mother and so I I go to like I go to like pull myself out and my other foot gets stuck and so I'm standing in the middle of this mud field just up to my like ankles like just a little bit past my ankles in mud and I'm like bro you gotta help me and Adrian's like laughing right of course and he comes like trucking over he's a little bit bigger than me so he could he could get through the mud a little bit better.

And so he starts he starts trying to pull me out he takes me by the hands and he's like pulling we're like like pulling right and and all of a sudden he's getting stuck so as he's pulling his feet are sinking in and I actually come flying out of my boots.

And so in I'm in the middle of the air and I land face first in this mud and my whole embody my whole body is covered from head to toe in mud.

And we in the moment we're like laughing like it was like that gut busting laugh where you could not stop laughing and Adrian falls over he's rolling in the mud he's like well you're doing it I'll do it and uh and so like I'm like we're just laughing and I'm like I'm like this is disgusting like if I ever did like I would never do that in these shoes.

That would suck.

But like I was covered from head to toe in mud and I remember laughing and then all of a sudden I stopped laughing because I remembered that my mom I think one of the things she said to me is like don't do anything stupid today.

And and I remember just like that replaying I'm like I'm dead like my life is my all my freedoms and I was thinking about like as we we crawled out of the mud eventually got the boots out and I was like walking through the mud in socks like if it's pretty disgusting to to visualize I think about it now and I don't like it.

But I remember walking back to the house it was like the walk of shame it was like the longest walk of my life and I remember uh like just the feeling and the the thoughts that were going through my head was like my mom is going to destroy my life like she is going to be so mad at me.

And on top of that I think we're actually late and I remember coming around the corner of of the road and and I saw on the on the porch my mom was actually standing there.

So to make matters worse she's actually looking for me now.

It's not me coming in and trying to like somehow like maybe steal some of Adrian's clothes that it would have been way too big for me but like she's standing on the porch because at this point we were actually late and they were actually waiting for everyone's in the car.

So there's there's two families waiting for us.

Everybody's in the car and my mom's looking at me and she makes eye contact and her face goes from like concern to like and she says two words she says car now I'm like see Adrian I'm gonna go die now.

And uh and I and I actually don't remember like what they did if they like stuck towels in the car but I remember I think that was the last time I got to go to the Baronet's for lunch.

And on top of that I ruined Bowling Sunday I ruined bowling sundae.

Sad days um but this story this story just kind of reminded me of and some of you might think it's silly but this story just kind of reminded me like of me you know disappointing my mom and disappointing our entire ruining bowling sundae like how dare you ruining my church clothes right my brand new like these pants were terrible but they were they were new and so my mom really you know she never buys clothes for me anymore because I'm really picky but this whole story and me walking back to my to my mom with kind of like this like terrified feeling is is kind of it kind of reminded me of how sometimes we often approach God with our mess.

When we're walking down that kind of road towards him and we're like man he's gonna be so mad at me.

I can't believe I'm walking I I should just run away and we we we approach God with this kind of fear of disappointment or fear of punishment.

Maybe um like we I think we I think we could all say that we've messed up like everyone in this room is probably at some point in your life made a mistake maybe this morning and if if you say that oh I'm perfect then we don't like you're lying so that's that's a mistake.

So right like everybody's made a mistake to some degree right we all have fallen short of the glory we've all sinned right so everyone everyone in this room is on the same page we've all made a mistake right and whatever that mistake is maybe uh maybe you you're like me and uh and you have like this little road rage fit and you just can't stand the the the Kelowna traffic and you just like lose it one day or maybe one day you you know you have a uh a fight with your spouse or a friend and you say some things that you didn't really mean or maybe maybe you just lost control one day and you just got really mad at your kids and you just feel terrible after or or maybe maybe you've come out of something and and and that past that past that you've come out of that old life is is is like clinging to you and it's really hard to get away and sometimes we find ourselves going back to those places or maybe maybe you're you swore last week maybe you uh even deeper than that maybe you even looked at that website again maybe it's that's that old life pulling you back or maybe maybe you're here today and you're like you have no joy in your life because you're just stuck in this comparison game right where you're just comparing your lives to other people's lives and what you don't have they have and all the joy just gets sucked out of your life or maybe you're maybe you're sitting here and you feel like man I've been betrayed and I don't trust anybody and and maybe you've been recently betrayed or maybe you're the betrayer maybe you're the one who betrayed the friend whatever it is across the board we've all made mistakes and and the worst thing happens when we're having a week like that it's not like we have it every day but sometimes we just have those like really bad weeks anybody know what I'm talking about where nothing's going right and we have like the worst patients in the world and we're just like we're just ready to explode we just can't handle it.

Our wife says one thing we're like hey I can't deal with you right now right like we just we have one of those weeks and those are the weeks that we we walk into superstore and we're like okay just keep calm and we see the pastor and we're like whoop like we don't want to talk to you like we we we like pull our hat down and we like put our hood up we don't want to make eye contact and and and and we feel like man like the pastor's like psychic or something he knows everything that's going on in my life if if he talks to me he's gonna he's gonna know so I'm gonna like go down the chip aisle my favorite aisle and I'm not gonna talk to him and then we get ourselves to Sunday we get ourselves to church and we it's almost like we we come to God with like this predetermined thought that he's already going to be mad with me.

Or we come to God with this predetermined thought that man God's I bet God's disappointed and I missed it this week I didn't read my Bible or I you know I I just messed up this week and and man I I'm coming to you God but I just feel like you're just gonna be disappointed in me.

We come with this like predetermined thought before we even get to God that he's gonna be upset with me.

We're standing there in our mud covered church pants and we're just standing there and we're like oh my God like we're so scared right God's gonna be he's gonna be so upset with me.

I I I don't know what to do.

Right and we we come to God with like that I think a lot of the a lot of the time and I think often we we get into this like mindset from that space we get into that mindset really really easily where we think that we need to earn God's approval.

And we think that we need to earn God's forgiveness and we feel like we need to somehow make up what we did or maybe things that we've been dealing with we somehow think that we have to make it up to God to pay him back somehow right we I think we often get into this mindset because it's it's most common with with our world because and we live in a world where nothing is free, right?

Nothing is free and if it's free it's usually a scam right and you you want to stay clear stay clear though I've been scammed a few times is scary same with Tallet.

But usually nothing nothing is is really free right because whether it's you know you're paying for your rent you're exchanging something we're always constantly exchanging things like we're exchanging things for other things right if we're doing like the Facebook swap or whatever or we're we're we're exchanging money for food we're exchanging money for rent and then we're exchanging our time for that money right we're constantly exchanging things and when when we say we like help somebody with something and the like the classic thing man I'll get you next time I owe you right someone buys you a coffee I I'll get you next I owe you like we help someone move oh I'm gonna I'm gonna make sure that when they move I I I owe them I owe them help.

Like we're constantly trying to owe each other something and we look to God and we think that man God's done so much for me I I owe him like I owe him something I need to pay him back somehow and maybe for some of this in this room maybe getting like I don't want to go too deep but like maybe getting to church today was your way of paying back God for something.

Maybe you opening up your Bible is like man I just need to get my life back on track and I just I just need to spend time with you.

It's not a bad thing but a the mindset is I need to pay you back somehow some way so me getting to church I feel better about myself wow now Monday comes and it all starts again and this is this is the opposite and this is where I want to go with this this is the opposite of what grace is okay this is the opposite of what grace is and when when I think about grace in a way when we s when we start to understand who grace is and what grace sounds like everything will change.

When we begin to start to understand who grace is and what grace sounds like everything will start to change.

It's a mindset.

And uh and and first my first point this morning is grace has a face.

Grace has a face.

Now, grace is the person of Jesus.

Jesus is graced personified.

Okay?

Jesus is graced personified.

Here, let me explain.

When we read the New Testament and we we read about Jesus, we see like his character, and we see these like little acts of grace on how he treats people and through his teachings.

Like we see these little kind of glimpses of grace.

And then until we actually read the whole story, we get to the end of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we see that there is this amazing uh event that takes place.

And it's the fullness of grace.

It's the greatest act of love to have ever been performed in history of mankind.

It's the greatest miracle to be ever performed and take place in the history of mankind.

Where in 2 Corinthians 5 21, where he who had no sin, he who knew no sin was made sin.

He who had no sin, we're talking about Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin, dying on a cross for us, so that in him, everyone say, in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

Grace, this is what grace does.

Grace made a way for us to become not our own righteousness because we're really good at doing that.

We're really good at trying to be good.

We're really good at trying to like puff ourselves up and be like, man, I am awesome, and man, the things that I'm doing are making me feel good, and we we do all these things.

Like we're really good at our own righteousness, but that's not what grace does.

Grace actually makes it so that we become his righteousness, not mine.

I'm my righteousness is nothing.

Grace makes a way for us to become his.

So that when we when we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, when we believe in our heart and we confess with our mouth, that's when the exchange happens.

Right?

When we take our filthy, mud-covered church pants and we are like, all right, God, like here's the best I got.

Right?

We we we our best effort to be a good person, right?

Our big sin, quote unquote, big sin, our little sin, quote unquote, and everything in between, right?

And he exchanges all of that for his perfect righteousness.

Grace takes us from one position, a position where we're striving and we're just trying to please God, and we're trying to do all these things.

We go to church and we read our Bible, and those are all good things.

I'm not saying they're bad.

We pray and we think that, man, oh, I feel good.

I prayed today, like I'm good.

Like it takes us from that position to a position that we didn't earn.

A position that we didn't even work for, a position that we didn't have to buy, and a pr a position that we didn't even deserve.

Right?

Ephesians 2, 8, 11, is for by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves, not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ.

Everyone say in Christ.

This position is righteousness.

Grace takes us into a position of righteousness.

Righteousness means uh where we're right standing with God, right relationship with God.

In other words, like we are right in his sight.

In other words, when when God sees you, when God sees Pastor Brian, when God sees Blake, when God sees me, he doesn't see necessarily me.

He sees his son, Jesus.

That's what it means when in Colossians 3.3 it says, Your old life is gone, like your old life is dead, and your new life is found where?

In Christ.

It's actually, it says hidden in Christ.

Right?

In Christ.

And now, as far as the east is from the west, that's how far he's removed our sin from us.

Right?

Grace has a face, and that face is Jesus.

And the second point I want to make this morning is grace has a sound.

Grace has a sound.

Maybe you've heard this before, uh, maybe in your life, maybe you've been told some of these things before, or maybe this is just a narrative in your head where you think, man, like I gotta clean myself up before I come to church.

Or man, like, you you can't be can't be looking like that, man.

Like, you got holes in your jeans, like, what's wrong with it?

You got mud all over your shirt.

Like, you gotta get your church pants on before you come to church.

You gotta get you gotta get a haircut before you can't come in here looking like that.

Or maybe maybe you've been stuck in a mindset, and maybe you you're in a in a in a circle of friends, you're like, you have that one negative friend, and you're like, man, you're too negative.

You're you're just negativitying up my space here.

Like, I don't need you in my life to be, and we we think like, I can't believe that you would think those thoughts.

And this is how we get as Christians, we get a little judgy, okay?

I've got to, we're going there.

And uh, or or or or we think like, man, I gotta I gotta be in this place before God's gonna see me.

Or I gotta do one, two, three, four, five, six things, the checklist before God's gonna use me.

And we think that we have to belong, or we think that we have to believe before we belong.

But these these thoughts, I think, I think to some degree, maybe some most of us have had these, I know I have, where I think that I need to do something to get it.

But these thoughts and this narrative that I think oftentimes is kind of rambling around in our own heads, is is the opposite of what grace sounds like.

And we look back at this story in Matthew that we read at the beginning, the disciples uh they just witnessed Jesus perform this miracle, uh, feeding 5,000 uh plus people with basically nothing, right?

And and the disciples get sent across the sea, and it gets windy, it gets rough, uh, there's a storm that happens, and and Jesus comes walking out onto the water towards the boat.

The disciples are like, ah! What is that?

And Jesus is like, hey, guys, chill.

It's me.

Don't be afraid.

And and Peter's like, whoa, it's Jesus.

And he's like, in this moment, he's like, I'm gonna prove something to these guys.

I'm gonna I'm standing in these, I can Pete Jesus, pick me, pick me, let me, let me.

I want to prove something to these guys.

I want to prove something to you too.

Jesus, and and Jesus calls Peter out of the water.

Jesus is like, come on, come on, Peter.

And Peter's like, whoa, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna prove this.

I'm gonna prove that I can do good.

And he steps out onto the water, he's like, whoa! Like he's walking on on water, like people don't do this.

Okay, this isn't normal.

Like we don't walk on water, we don't have the technology yet.

Um Peter steps out on those boats, and there's this, like, if you look at this scene, you look at this scene, and you understand that like like Peter is seeing tangible physical Jesus standing on water while he's standing on water, like he's in a moment where it's like this is a miracle in front of my eyes.

How could I ever doubt?

How can I ever go back in this moment?

And what does Peter do?

He he starts to think this isn't normal.

Like I'm walking on water, and he starts to look around, he's like, This is insane.

And he and he takes his eyes off of Jesus and he begins to sink.

He cries out, Lord, help me.

And immediately Jesus in his in his mercy just grabs Peter right away, right?

He says, Peter, why did you doubt?

Why did you doubt me?

And they get back into the boat, and and Peter is sitting there in the boat and he's soaked to the bone.

He's soaking wet in this failure.

He just doubted Jesus.

And he's probably sinking sitting there thinking, like, man, like, how did I how did I go back to that?

How did I doubt it again?

Like, how did I why did I go back?

And he's sitting there just sopping wet inside this boat, just covered in in failure, covered in doubt.

And he's sitting there, and I think in this moment, like, this is what I would think would happen, and be like, the other disciples would gather around, be like, man, Peter, that's embarrassing.

Like, you had Jesus right in front of you, meters away.

And and when we just witnessed Jesus perform a pretty crazy miracle.

Like, you would think that by now you would start to trust him.

And and on top of that, human you, Peter, were walking on water.

Why did you how did you mess that up?

Here, Peter, here's a towel.

Here, dry off, man.

Like, look at you.

Like, draw, dude, that's embarrassing.

And and and but what happens instead?

What happens?

The response of disciples and Peter is completely different than what I would expect.

And they begin enjoying Jesus.

They begin to actually worship Jesus.

They begin to actually just lift him up and they start to look at Jesus instead of soaking failure, like covered in shame, Peter, right?

Like he's just drenched.

And they begin to worship.

They didn't even notice Peter.

And uh and they land, and immediately people start to recognize them.

And and Peter's not even dry at this point.

Okay?

He's still in his wet clothes.

And in these people are coming to Jesus, and now Peter, while he's in his wet clothes, is facilitating long lines of prayer for Jesus.

And here's my point.

Here's my point.

We've been taught, I think often in Christian circles, we've been taught that we need to dry off.

That you need to, you need to get right before you do that.

You need, oh dude, you need to get on your hands and knees and begin to just pray before you can.

You need to dry off before you can serve.

We need to be dry before God can use me.

And we think, man, I need I need to be dry before God can see me as useful.

Because we don't we don't want wet people coming into church.

Like have you ever sat in a seat where someone was like like have you ever sat on a wet bench?

It's the worst.

Like someone's wet.

Oh, it's disgusting.

Like someone wet was sitting here.

We don't want that in church.

We don't want you door greeting while you're dripping wet.

We especially don't want a worship leader up here that's that's dripping all over the instruments and getting water in the monitors, and we especially don't want a wet preacher.

Right?

But that's not the sound of grace.

The sound of grace is come as you are.

Whether you're soaking wet, whether you're covered in mud, come as you are, whether you're wearing the fancy church pants, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

That doesn't mean stay where you are.

Come as you are doesn't mean stay where you are.

Because Jesus called Peter out of the boat knowing he would fail.

First of all, he knew he would fail, but he didn't call him out to embarrass him.

He didn't call him out to make him feel bad.

He didn't call him out to like say, hey, look at Peter.

He's an idiot.

Like he thought he could walk on water, but whoop, see, he sank.

Like he didn't call him out on the water to trick Peter.

He actually called him out because he wanted to show him something that he couldn't have seen in his comfort zone of his little boat.

Right?

He called him out to cause him to change his thinking and to change him and to cause him to grow because Jesus is gonna call us.

He's going to call you, he's calling you, he's called you.

Right?

You missed his call, but he's gonna call again, right?

He's calling you, and he's not calling you to stay the same, he's calling you out of your comfort zone, he's calling you to growth, he's calling you to change.

Grace isn't an excuse to sin.

I'm wrapping this up really quick here.

Grace is not an excuse to sin.

Okay, sometimes we get in this mentality, well, if there's lots of grace, I can sin lots, right?

Because grace has covered me, right?

No.

Peter actually, or let's go through the whole Bible of names.

Paul addressed this in Romans 6 1.

That's not the point of grace, it's not a free pass to sin.

It's actually grace, what it is, it's it's a motivation changer.

It changes your motivation from while you're walking down that road covered in in mud and you're walking home, you're like, man, God's gonna he's gonna beat me.

Like, he's gonna be so mad.

He just spotted these are his favorite church pants.

These are his favorite, this is his favorite haircut, and I messed it all up.

And we think we it changes our motivation from thinking that God's angry with us and that there's like a fear, it's like a fear-based mentality to love.

To seeing how good God is, how could I go back?

That's what grace does for us.

Can I ask you to to bow your heads and close your eyes with me?

The personification of grace satisfied the justice of God.

Jesus satisfied, he paid the full price.

It wasn't like a layaway plan where he had to come back and pay a little bit more each time.

He paid the full price so that you and I could enter into his righteousness, placing us in a position that we didn't earn, we didn't work for, we didn't do anything good to get there.

We are there simply because of his love and our accept acceptance of that love.

So I want to ask this morning, maybe you uh we just want to give an opportunity.

If maybe you're here and you feel like, man, I've never experienced the grace of God in my life.

Man, I've never experienced that love.

And this morning I want to ask you if you'd be brave, if you'd be brave.

And say that, man, I've I've never been a part of that family.

I've never been a part of that family of God.

I've never experienced his grace.

I feel like I'm covered in mud.

I feel like I am soaked to the bone in failure.

I feel like I'm soaked to the bone in sin.

And this morning, God wants to dip you into his grace so that you're not covered from head to toe in sin and failure, but you're covered from head to toe in his grace.

And this morning, I just want to ask if there's anybody in this room.

We just want to give an opportunity for a response.

That you would say, I've never experienced his grace, I've never made that decision to follow Jesus.

And this morning, I want to make that decision, and I want God to change my life this morning.

And if you're here, I just want to ask, just nobody looking around.

This is just a moment between you and God.

If you just pop your hand up, we just want to pray with you.

Just pop your hand up.

You never made a decision to follow Jesus, and you you want to experience that grace this morning.

We're just gonna wait a minute.

You've never made that decision, just pop your hand up really quick.

And maybe you're here this morning.

Maybe you're here this morning, and you feel like, man, you feel like Peter.

Maybe you you've been following God, but you feel like, man, I need to prove something to God.

I feel like I've been trying to prove something to him.

I feel like I've been trying to buy his grace.

And this morning, I want to give you guys an opportunity just to respond to this message this morning.

And and when Peter, when Peter fell into failure, when he sank, his response wasn't, Woe is me.

It was worship.

It was worship.

He was worshiping, soaked.

And it doesn't mean that God is excusing the sin, but he's saying, Hey, come as you are, whatever you're dealing with this morning, come as you are.

Wherever you're at in your life right now, come as you are.

And would you stand with me this morning?

We're just gonna enter into a time of just worship.

And this morning, I just encourage you just to stay in the atmosphere.

And if you want to, if you're comfortable, just begin to lift your hands to heaven and begin to ask him, man, whatever's going on in your life, his grace has covered it.

His grace has covered you.

Whatever mistakes you've made this past week, whatever mistakes you've been holding on to this your whole life, whatever mud you're covered in, God wants to fix it today.

He wants to take it and take you, and he wants to put you in his grace.

He wants to take you from a position of striving to a position where we just start to begin to walk in it.

We just begin to walk in his love, we begin to walk in his grace.

And so this morning, would you just join me in worshiping the King of Kings, the God who came to save, no matter where you are, where you've been, whatever you're going through, this morning, his grace has covered it.