co.Pastor johhine Johnson God has grace us 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Thinking about the goodness of God even as the praise

team was going forth Hallelujah, and thinking about His grace

and his mercy that he continues to extend unto us daily.

None of us knew that we would be here on today,

even though we laid down for rest last night and

expected to get up. But His grace sow fit to

be our long clock. Yeah, we can count on those

clocks all we want to, but it's God's grace, it's.

His unmerited favor. And so just.

Giving him the glory and the honor for that and

listening to the praise and worship to go on because

God is faithful even when we not.

So every opportunity that we get.

I think it's beautiful that we would decide to give

Him some glory.

And some honor.

And I am reminded from last Sunday we have a choice.

We make the decision to whether we're gonna praise and

worship us sit down and look, that's all on us.

But thank God that we have the hearts and the

mind to continue to lift up.

And honor God for who God is in our life.

If he never gives me another thing, He's done enough

I'm saved, say, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.

And before that I was headed straight to hell. So

thank God for salvation on today man Amen, So again

just thanking God for his grace and his mercy.

God is good.

The putting this message together, just thinking about how sometimes

we feel like we fall short, and all the times

it ain't even that we feel like it. Sometimes we

had that little booger wolf in our ear trying to

condemn us for what we have done or have not done,

as if he know what we should be doing. But

he has a little in inclinency of what we should

be doing. So when he thinks we're not doing what's right,

he'll sometimes get in our ear and decide to try

to make us feel condemned. Well, on today again, God

has sent me a word to allow you to know

that God is with you and he has you. So

we know that sometimes we don't read enough, sometimes we

ain't prayed enough, and I don't know what enough is.

I'm just saying enough, but sometimes that'll be the thought.

And so as I was preparing for this message, the

Lord was reminding me that it's never enough for us

because we can't never do enough. But God himself is enough.

So all that we need, all that we feel like

we might be lacking in, that's God. That's where he

comes in at. He's more than enough. There's no middle

to God. God is more than enough. So I will

be coming to you on today from First Corinthians. I'll

be reading verses chapter one, verses one through nine. If

you could stand with me for the reading of the Word. Again,

that's just us honoring God.

Again.

I know some people don't understand why we stand when

we read the Word, but we stand as a reverence

and an honor God. I'm reminded when I first started

reading the Bible the how I found out that back

in the Old Testament that they stood for hours never

set down, even though they didn't have seats. That wasn't

why they did not set down. They set down to

honor God. Why the priest gave them what God had

told him to give them. They didn't have the Bible

back then, So again it's just respect and honor too.

God has nothing to do with the man or the

woman of God. So the Word of God, says First Corinthians,

chapter one, verse one, cow to be in apostle of

Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sultanese our brother,

unto the Church of God which is at Corinth. To

them that are sanctified in Christ, all to be saints.

With all that, with all that in every place, call

upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs

and ours. Grace be unto you.

And peace from God our Father, and from the Lord

Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always on your behalf for the

grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.

That in everything you guys, everything you're not missing anywhere.

In everything ye are enriched in Him.

All that we need.

God has it, hallelujah, and He has given it unto

us in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as

the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that

ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming

of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you

unto the that ye may be blameless in the day

of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom

ye were called unto the fellowship of His son Jesus Christ,

our Lord. Amen, you may be seated. I've heard on

this morning, and that was just confirmation for me, because yeah,

I done heard Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, we was in her

praying this morning.

And how good is grace and his mercy is and man.

Jesus, how he gave his life, God, how he got us, God,

how he keeps keeping us. And then God wanted you

to be encouraged even a little bit more through His

word the Bible on today a man. So you put

that praise in worship, with that prayer in the Word,

and you should be set for the rest of the week.

A man.

So again, as I was saying earlier, we know that

we have sometimes we feel like.

We hadn't been doing all that we should do, and sometimes.

We even feel like we may be leading or going

in the wrong way.

And that's human. We're not perfect.

The way that God causes us to be perfect is

to mature in Him. So we mess up sometimes, we

make some mistakes sometimes, and that's what the church here

in Corinth was going on. In Corinth, Paul was writing

this letter because there was some mishaps going on in

the church. Paul the apostle this was he had created

started up this.

Church during his second missionary journey.

So he had been gone away from the church for

about five years, say, in between starting the church here,

he was now in Ephesus. So in the process of

starting the church and going on the way that the

apostle did, it was he would start the church, get

them set on what they needed to do, give them

the outline.

Of how to be Christians.

Now, because these these people were not Christians. These were

gentiles that had been bought in and so they wasn't

used to what was supposed to be done. So what

Paul did when he set up the churches, he taught

the same thing that the overseer just got through.

Saying, that's our mission.

We are to reach those little loss he quipped, those

little family, and then send those that are chosen. So

he had up, brought it up, brought them with the

word of God, and then he goes to his next mission. Well,

in the midst of doing this, the little chaos broke

out in the church. So Paul ends up writing the

letter to them and so again a lot of times

and not quite sure that this may be how they felt.

But I know sometimes for us we feel as if

were maybe I'm just not doing enough, or we went

wrong somewhere, and then there's some confusion going on because

now we're all a little new at this. Again, the

church had only been set up five years. For some people,

that might seem like a long time. For some people

that might seem like a short.

Time, depending on how long.

I've seen people that have been saved for years and

we don't ever get to where we're supposed to be

because we won't do that until we get with Christ.

But depending on what you're doing, you might be a

little more babyish than the next Christian. I've seen something

that's been saved for twenty thirty years and they don't

have or they're not in the place for somebody who's

been saved for two or three years. That comes with

us continuously allowing God to do a work in us,

but then us also working.

Amen.

It don't mean that we get saved and we just

sit down. Ye know, there's more to do after that. Well,

we have to pray, we have to read, we have

to study, we have to continue to move to get

closer to God. And so the church has been having

some issues and some problems, and due to these problems.

In these issues, the letter gets.

To power that Hey, this is what's going on. But

the thing I like about Paul and his leadership is

Paul didn't come in there our gung hold.

With his chest out.

He didn't come in there hollering and screaming while y'all

ain't been doing right. You know what I told you.

You know what I taught you. You should know better

by now. Even though there was some times that he

had to say that he didn't come in there at

the beginning like this.

He came in there with thanksgiving.

He wanted to greet them and allow them to see

his position and recognize who he was through this letter.

Because I'm Paul, I'm the Apostle.

So Kyle the apostle is writing and it says that

he's as Sautter. So we just figured that somebody who

may have been part of the church when he started

it up. But like I say, Paul has left the

church now he's going on to establish other churches. So

this is Paul in this letter coming to the Corinthians

about what he had heard about what was going on

in the church.

And they were having some identity.

Problems, not remembering whose they were or not so as

much as who they were, but who called them. So

when he starts out his letter, he wants them to

know that their identity is not self appointed, but their

identity is divine. The reason their identity is divined is

because they didn't call their self. God called them. Like

the majority of us, we didn't call ourself God called us.

John six point.

Forty four says that no man comes unto God except

that he called draw them to him.

So it's not like we all.

And maybe that's sometimes where we can get off track

at we think we saved because we saved us, or

we think we saved because of what we're doing. It's

not by works, but it's by God, and it's by

God's grace. So God's grace has given them an extended

unto them, the invitation to come in to the fellowship

with Jesus Christ a man. And I'm knowing for sure

that I went too fast. We're gonna back up, and

I'm gonna give you my title. My title is.

God has graced us. Yeah, all, and God a little excited.

So God has graced us. Because this means God has

graced us.

If you called God didn't grace you, Because there's a

whole bunch of people that have not been called and

then there are some that have been called and have

not answered the call. So the grace is there, but

they hadn't taken of it, they hadn't partaken in it

to receive.

It for them own self.

So again, no man comes to God except God call

him first. And so Power wanted them to know that

they had been grace to be a part of this family.

God himself had divinely called them. In two Timothy two

and one and nine says God saves us and cause

us to a holy life, not based on words, but

according to his own purpose and his grace.

And so Powle couldn't start.

This letter out any other way except for allowing them

to know that even though y'all going through some stuff,

because sometimes we think it's us and we feel like I.

Can acknowledge that for myself.

When I first got saved, I remember I used to

have to say I didn't have to I said the

sentence prayer open over again.

And that was because I was taught. Hey, that was

how we got saved.

And there would be times I would be going through

stuff and I didn't feel like I was saved no more.

Even though there's no feeling to save, I can't imagine

the people who back up and get into a little

something and the enemies starts squeaking in their ear, Hey

you ain't you ain't you lost it? But that's not biblical.

What's biblical is is that we go through our test

and our trials come to make us strong. Just because

you go through something, if you foll it don't mean

that you're out of there.

God has counted you out.

The Bible says that the righteous man can file seven

times but yet get back up. So if iul don't

keep you there. So again, with the issues that was

going on in the church, power was encouraging them that

God was still with them. Not only have y'all been called,

but God has also sanctified you.

He then sanctified you and set you apart.

Sanctification means God has set you apart for His use,

not for your use. Sanctification means that we have been

put in a place where God can help us and

allow us to nurture and grow. Now there's a continuation

of sanctification, but that's us.

Yeah.

Once God has sanctified you, then you sanctified. But there's

a process that we go through, meaning that you have

to continue to work. Yeah, and that sanctification and so

there was something that they still needed to do. That's

why he had to write them this letter. He couldn't

leave them where they were. But as I said earlier,

it behooves me how kind he is before he starts

to say anything else, because kindness can bring somebody out

of a darkened place when we have some when you

have somebody that's going through, you don't just go in

there and gung ho go to saying oh, yeah, you

did it wrong, and you should have did this, and

you should have did that.

Words of encouragement lift us up.

The Bible says that God himself will lift up our

hung down heads. So Paul is encouraging them despite of

their message. Power caused them not only saints, but he

caused them God's Holy Ones. Verse two says, and unto

the Church of God which is atcarnthe to them that

are sanctified in Christ Jesus, They're not just sanctified, they're

sanctified in Christ Jesus for his use. We are sanctified

in Christ Jesus, not for ourself, but for God and

for his shoes. It's call to be saints with that

in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ,

our Lord, both theirs and ours. It's a group, it's

a family, it's a fellowship. And that's what we are

in our relationship with God. Being as believers, we are

made the righteousness in Holy and Jesus alone. Our righteousness

and our holiness does not come from us. It does

not come from what we do. We couldn't do enough

to be righteous. We can't do enough to be holy,

even though the Bible says, be ye holy, for I

am holy. That's what God says. But it still comes

from within God. We don't do any of this within

our own self. Listening earlier and we was talking about

the Holy Spirit with Alcoholy Spirit, We're not gonna do

any of this. What is the Holy Spirit is God

within us, who leads and guides us into our righteousness,

into our truth, into our things that God has called

us to do when we heed to.

The Holy Spirit and his leading Aymen.

Sanctification though again being a lifelong process where.

The Holy Spirit helps us to be transformed.

Because when like I said, when they come in, they

didn't know, they didn't have no understanding. We don't know

now once you get in here for a while and

you've been taught, you sat under some good leadership, then

you should know. And so as I said earlier, the

church had been established for five years.

Something was going on. Something was going on, because that

was enough.

Time to have taken heed to what they had been

taught before Paul left. Because we know power, We know

Power was a scholar. We know Power wasn't going in

nowhere half. So when Power went in and stow at

this church of Power gave them all that they needed,

just as God did. He wasn't gonna leave them without

knowing all that they needed to do. But they still

had some complications. And so in my research and in

my studies say they had mess. And I thought of

the church today mess. And it may not be all churches,

and it may not be in every aspect of the church,

but there's some mess. So we as people of God

need to understand that God got us, that even through

his grace, his grace would get us through anything.

So we don't even have to be a part of

the mess.

What we have to do is recognize whose we are

and who we are Poll called them to be united

with believers.

It's sometimes hard for.

You to remember who you are and who you are

if you're not hanging with people just like you. When

I was coming up, I used to always hear birds

of a feather flock together. And so if I'm spending

all my time outside of here, you only come to

church two, three, maybe two days a week. I witnessed

to somebody on this morning, and I was telling them,

and I'm not saying that if you just can't make it,

you just you gotta come anyway, But I said, I

remember pressing.

To get to the House of the Lord.

I said, I remember sitting in the back and didn't

even know it, but I had like four or five

blood clots in my leg. My leg was so big

I couldn't even hardly put the brace on it that

they gave me to put on it.

It was after surgery, and I.

Can't tell you the pain. I can't even describe it.

But I remember the enemy. He would always say, you

ain't got to go to church. And I knew it

was him because I heard it. It wasn't like I said, old,

I'm in pain, I'm not gonna go, but I could hear, oh,

you ain't gotta go, You'll be okay. You just had surgery. Yeah,

you ain't got to go after each surgery. I was

in the hospital and what I was telling an individual,

and this is the hospital. This is the hospital, hey man,

because I remember after every surgery sitting in the back

with the knees, sitting over here with the shoulder, and

remember being up here on the praise team and had

a hole in my stomach and didn't even know I

had a hole in my stomach. The late Lady Moore

would be praying over me, doing praise and worship, rebuking

some stuff that didn't need to be rebuked, but I

needed to go get checked.

I'm just saying I was in the hospital.

You know how you can come to church and you

got a headache, and then as soon as you get

in there and go to praising God, man, everything good. Yeah,

you in pain. Your knee ain't working right because I

got one of them knees. And as soon as they

say take off and run and you run that first lamp,

y'all you able to kick.

Now.

I'm just saying, so we have to understand that we

need to be united with believers.

I can't go to.

Walmart and do that. And that's my store. If I

go to walmart't go to run around them. People gonna

think I'm crazy. But with family, I can do that.

So we need to be united as believers. But we

also need to be united as believers so that we

can help one another. See, this church needed some encouragement.

But if if Paul could get one or two out

of the bunch to feel lifted up, then they can

help the other ones. We've been called to let the

strong barrow the infirmities of the week. If we're not

communicating with each other, how we gonna do that. The

Bible even calls us a community, separates us. A lot

of people will say, but that's not right. Well why not?

Because when I'm in the world, then the world has

its own systems, its own makeup, it has its own

What the world ain't gonna tell me?

God on to go to church. That's the hospital and

all that. Girl.

If I was you, I bet I wouldn't. Yeah, ain't

nowhere in the world. You're gonna catch me in the church. Uh,

I'd have been somewhere else. I heard sister Vernell coming

here this morning talking about my arms was hurting. I

was gonna go to the urgent creve, but I changed

my mind and decided to come to church.

Why it's the hospital. The spirit of the Lord was

just in her early.

Let the spirit of the Lord move up on you

and you'll be walking out of her heeled.

Amen. Amen. Yeah, I'm deed holding her hand up. Yeah.

So we need to make sure that we are united

as believer us.

This is a reminder that we belong to a.

Larger universal church because you hear people say it all

the time, and they're not lying. We are the church

where I go, I take God with me. But when

we come up and hear the Bible says for sake

not to assemble ourselves together. Why because we need each other.

We after our week loan our week loan. So at

least once a week I need to come in here

and get gassed.

Up by those who will have the same.

Mind, a common mind coming with me, because I'm not

gonna find common mind coming.

Thoughts in the world.

If all my coworkers or sinners and something happened on

the job and I start to pray, they gonna.

All look at me crazy.

Ain't nobody gonna join in with me when we know

we need prayer. So if I'm at the at the

car washer, at the store, somewhere, something happens and it

ain't no saints in there and say I foul and

I get up and I'm praying, or I won't. Might

want somebody to come and pray over me before I

even get up. If it ain't, if it ain't no

common mind that people in there like me, then they

are all again just gonna look at me crazy.

And so even in.

The body of Christ, we need to recognize that we

need each other. I think sometimes we forget that, and

that's why you find so much confusion in the church.

That's why you find churches and church members going back

and forth with each other because they have forgotten the

God has called us to be one. The Bible says

there's one body, but many members. So it don't matter

what you do or what department you work in. I

need you, Hey man, I need you. I need you,

and I recognize you need me. So then that means

I need to make sure that I can be there

for you. So this church needed some encouragement with that. Again,

not quite sure exactly what they was doing, but it

said it was mess.

We are not in ourselves, but we're in one body.

Hebrews ten twenty four through twenty five encourages believe us

not to neglect meeting together, but to stir up one

another toward love and good works.

That's what we do with each other. We stir up

one another.

If I don't have a saint to encourage me, how

am I gonna be encouraged? And I'm not saying I

can't encourage myself, but it ain't nothing like a saint

giving me a.

Word of encouragement. Somebody doesn't know what it's like. Amen.

And and even if you don't say nothing, it's spent.

Some times I've been going through and get on the

phone with somebody that we don't even start praying. I

can't do that with my worldly friends.

That they don't understand that.

And I'm not saying that we can't friend of fellowship

with them, but I'm saying for this we've been called to.

How do we keep one another lifted up? This world

looks as.

If our hell is breaking loose, And depending on who

you get around, it is breaking loose, because they gonna

be complaining and oh lord, look at this, and Trump

did this, and Trump did that, and this is what all,

look at my life bill, look at my grocery bill. Yeah,

that that shouldn't be our testimony. That shouldn't be our testimony.

The Bible says that we break for those in leadership.

So whatever Trump doing, I ain't worried about Trump, all

of them worried all of them. I ain't even wear it.

I'm thankful that God can hear my prayers. The Bible

say he is attentive up too the cries of the righteous.

So I know whatever I need, I give it to God.

I'm not gonna give it no benefit or no extrainess

through my mouth.

Complain about Trump for what. Trump ain't in control. God

is in control.

It's God that puts man up, just like it's God

that can take him down.

But now, if God see fit that he want to

keep using Trump, have that own way.

I'm just saying for your glory, because a lot of

people say that, oh, he couldn't be using him, not

the way he is.

Have they not read the.

Bodyble Cause I'm just saying God will use or he

wanna use.

If he can use that donkey, he can use Trump

a man. Amen. So I need my company.

I need some people that I can fellowship with and

their we're on the same level with me.

Amen. Amen.

Galatians six and two says Burry, Ye another's burdens. We

mentioned that other a little earlier. Now you might be

going through something. I should be able to lift you up. Yeah,

you should be able to lift me up. We lift

each other up. We keep each other lifted up. And

that's what this church needed. Whatever mess was going on

was bringing them to a place of displacement amongst one another.

And Paul understood that the only one that we can.

Ever have is with in Jesus.

And even with that, if if we not all in Jesus,

there's gonna be a little friction there.

Because again, we.

Don't have the same thoughts, we don't have the same worries,

and we for sure don't have the same language. And

we need to all be speaking the same thing defined

by grace and peace. The foundation of Christians living is

divine favor.

We living in God's divine favor. That's the grace.

It is unmerited, and right now we're living in a

dispensation of grace.

One day it.

Won't be here and I won't either. I'm going with grace,

hey man, I'm just serious. Without God's grace, there is

so much that we could be going through that could

be even worse. And people are complaining about now we

got God's grace. It's his grace and his unmerited favor

that is keeping us right now or there's no telling.

Again, I don't even want to know.

I don't even want to imagine how bad it's gonna

be once there's no more grace.

I don't want to be here.

Yeah, And so we recognize that without God's grace and

his unmerited favor, that man, there's not a lot of help.

There's not a lot of hope that we can have.

One of the other things is God's blessings. One of

my favorite scriptures is the Blessings of the Lord make

it rich and added no sorrow. And the reason that's

my favorite verses because it helps me to know a

lot of people. When I first got saved, I would

always say, they say how you doing, And I say,

I'm blessed because I was. I'm blessed. I'm blessed to

be saved. It has nothing to do with stuff. The

world takes blessings and they think of it as stuff. No,

I'm blessed to be walking and talking. I'm blessed to

be alive. I'm blessed to be clothed in my right

mind a man, because it's so many that I ain't.

I could have woke up and not knew who I

was this morning and been walking down the street talking

to myself. I count my blessings, Amen, Amen, And so

I know that there's no sorrow coming.

With that. I'm blessed.

And so in verse four he explains to them, and

I want to go ahead and read this one. Verse

four says, and I thank God, Thank my God always

on your behalf. This is power again for the grace

of God, which is given you by Jesus Christ. Not

nothing that we did, we can't by grace. Can't nobody

lend us grace. It only comes from Jesus Christ. And

thank God, it's for everybody right now. Thank God for

that grace is in the land. Verse five says that

in everything ye are enriched in Him, and all utterance

and in all knowledge.

We have been blessed with gifts from on high.

We have been enriched in Jesus. Means that we're not

lacking anything. We're not like as much as we want

to say we're lacking something, we're not.

And that's how you have to look at that.

It's not always about stuff, because He has gifted us

knowledge so that we'll.

Have the know to to do what we need to.

Because if you.

Don't know what to do, then I can say, Okay,

well that's understandable. But when you do know and then

you don't do yeah, And like I say, they knew,

they knew, like the majority of us knew because Paul

had taught them. We've been taught, we've been setting under

some good leadership. I know, I've been here for over

twenty one years, so if you hadn't been here that long.

Of coming and hearing the sermons, it is my prayer

that when they go forth that your heart is receiving

of them because that's being taught, that's being taught the

word God, and so.

With that we've been enriched.

It helps us to have an understanding of who God

has called us to be and how God has called

us to be. And like I say, even just reminded

on last Sunday, the sermon said, we have a choice.

So I have a choice in everything that I do

unless somebody is holding a gun, and I'm gonna take

that back because he can hold a gun.

To my head and I can still choose, Amen, you gonna.

Shoot me, or I ain't gonna do what you tell

me to do, which I'm gonna do what you tell

me to do. Whichever one, we still have that choice.

So we have a choice to live.

Right.

They were being called to live to certain standards. Why

because they're saints in God. We're saints in God. We've

been called to live a certain way. We're called to

do things a different way. Again, we're not of this world.

We're just in this world. So we don't live according

to the world's standards. We live according to God's principles

that are in the Word. And so maybe you may

not know God's principles. But like I say, if you

come in here, I can say this about this church.

We preach the Word. She got me on that one.

But we preach the Word so that teaches you or

gives you some instructions on how God has called us

to be. So again, the church was going through some

issues in somewhere they had got off track with what

Paul had taught them and how Paul had told them

that they should be. But Paul wanted them to also

know that they weren't lacking in any gifts, but he

again and not waiting and lacking in any gifts, also

be eagerly awaiting. Our focus should not be on our

present mess ups, but on the future hope of Jesus return.

Because we're imperfect people, We're gonna mess up. The whole

thing is, don't mess up and stay there, and don't

take God's grace forget granted, because that be staying there,

But understand that God does have grace, and with his

grace God can help us to get back up.

We were never meant.

To fall and stay down, but we were meant to

stay up. Second Peter two, Second Peter three, fourteen eleven

through fourteen, and carriages us to live holy in godly

lives while looking forward to the speeding the coming of

the day of God. Forward to and speeding the coming

day of God.

That's what we should be looking forward to. If we

mess up.

You messed up, Okay, get up, let's get back on,

get back on, churck, let's get started back over and

then again.

We have the community.

Maybe you need to call a sister in the church.

Maybe you need to call somebody you know that can

help you be lifted up. Sometimes some things of the

world can weigh us down.

And that weight can be heavy.

So we don't want to just go through everything by

ourself and believe that we got it because we don't

have it. But Christ does. God does, and with him

having it, he can lead and guide us. When we

recognize that he has it that I don't have it,

I'm not trying to fix it that I'm literally trusting

in God with my whole heart and I'm going to

allow him to lead God and direct me. And so

sometimes we even need encouragement with that. So again, this

is a new, up and coming church that is having

some issues with something that's going on. And obviously they

hadn't been going to each other because it got back

to Paul that hey, these people over here and they

doing some stuff that we know that you didn't teach

them to do. We know that they're not doing this

out of you starting this church up. So that was

why Paul had to write the letter. But like I say,

the letter starts out with Paul and he's not I'm

beating them up. Sometimes we don't need to be beat up.

Sometimes we need to be in carriage. Sometimes we need

to be lifted up with some thanksgiving and some praise.

Because Paul is thanking them. He didn't just go right in.

With the letter and go to saying, oh, you're doing this,

you're doing that. No, thank you, thank you for being

who you are and this is what you should be doing.

Thank you, guys for supporting one another.

Thank you guys for holding on and in the same incense,

giving them some.

Encourriagement while they're holding on.

There's a guarantee that we get when we hold on

to God. The guarantee is what God would.

Do for us. God would sustain us.

There's some stuff that we'd have been through that it's

only by the grace of God that we yet still here.

And it's gonna be some more because it ain't like

you just go through one time and that's it. And

that's what I like about the word go through, because

it means you're not gonna stay there. So if even you,

while you're in whatever that situation or that circumstances, can

say God, thank me, I mean, thank you for why

I'm going through. Because if you can keep saying go through,

then you have the understanding that you're gonna come out.

It was never meant for you to get in a

situation and stay there.

God never allows us to get in slumps, and then

he leaves us there again. I test and trials come

to make us strong. What I'm learning is, Lord, what

am I doing in this season?

What are you doing in this season?

And with what I'm doing and what you're doing, what

is it that I should be learning from this? And

that's new for me because I used to go through

and if something made me mad, it made me mad.

Now I'm not a violent type of person, but I

would get mad, and I would allow the person that

I was mad at to know I was mad.

The Lord is even helping me with that one. What

is it that I need to get from this?

Because if I'm going through a situation, while I'm in

that hallway, while I'm in that tunnel, if it looks

real dark and it looks real bleak, I know that

God is in there with me, and I know that he's.

Not in there with me and he ain't saying something

to me.

But if I get so focused on what's going on

the situation, the circumstance or whatever it.

Is, I'm gonna miss out on God.

So I got to learn to attune my ears to

what God is saying or what God is doing, even

if it's a situation that I don't understand that I

don't even like. Not only would God sustain us, but

Psalms fifty five and twenty two says, cast all your

burdens on the Lord.

That's when you can be sustained.

We was talking about carrying the burdens of the week,

I mean of the week. The strong God wants to

carry all our burdens. While he has our burdens, he

is sustaining us. He's keeping me in the midst of

the load that I had that he's now carrying.

Why because I gave it to him, I didn't keep it.

And a lot of times we'll keep things to ourself,

or we'll keep things and won't allow God to work

on us with If I'm not saying, Lord, what am

I supposed to be learning through this, then I'm keeping that.

If I'm not saying what would you have me to

do in.

The midst of this, then I'm keeping that I'm not

even acknowledging that God is there to help me with

that situation. And so when I do that, then I'm

holding on to that burden. And then we wonder why

we get so weighted down. Now you stressed, Now you

got a headache, Now you don't know what to do

because you holding on to everything that God is just

trying to take you through, or even in the or

whether it be in the midst of you going through.

Then you stop. And when you.

Stop, it's like you stuck instead of pressing your way through.

It's no difference in getting up and coming to church.

Like I said, when you don't feel good than to

be in a situation or a circumstance, and what you

do is turn your back on it.

You don't acknowledge that it's.

Thereah, even though you see that big rock in the road,

you just keep looking at it. So when we do that,

then that means that I'm keeping that to me. I

ain't ask God to help me with that. I ain't

cast my burdens up on him. Cast is to throw Yeah,

get this thing, Lord, I don't know what to do

with this.

I don't know what to do with that. I don't

know what to do with these people. I don't know

what this situation, whatever it is here take it. And

then when you do that, when you.

Cast it up on him, he'll sustain you why you're

going through. But you're learning why you're going through, y'all.

You're learning why you're going through. He not just gonna

take the burden and hold the burden and then say

turn around, go back. You don't have to go through

no cause it's to help you. But He's gonna sustain you.

See. I keep.

One of the things that I've been really thanking God

for is giving me in a spirit of endurance, because

sometimes we have to learn how to endure under pressure

instead of getting mad and always going out for saying no,

I'm not gonna do this one.

No, here I am.

And while I'm holding this, Lord help me, You sustain me.

And I'm gonna endure because I understand that this is

for my making. I don't believe that anything we go through,

we're going through it for no reason. The Bible says God. Well,

the Bible don't say that He ain't gonna put no

more on you than you can bear it.

Don't it. Don't.

But know that you will be sustained a man and

God is with you whenever you go through a man

Philippians four and thirteen says we can do all things

through Christ, who strengthens us. That Bible, that's a scripture

right there, So you can do it. So even if

it means you're enduring, you can endure. You can go through.

Christ. Jesus is in you. Not only is Christ Jesus in.

You, but God has your back. Blameless to the end,

blameless to the end. We are help by God.

Until the end. And this one just really blessed my soul.

One of my words for last week, and I'm gonna

take it on into this week with me is recognizing.

God as el Roi, the God deceives me, because.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in it by myself, and

I think that might be just depending on who you are.

And Lord, do you really see what's going on? And

so he reminded me on last week, I.

Am el Roi. I see.

And so because God sees, and I know I'm okay,

because I know God won't allow me to be crushed

to where I can't.

Get back up.

He won't allow me to be overtaken to where I

can't help myself.

God is gonna always have my.

Interest in his best interest, And so One of the

scriptures that he gave me also was Isaiah forty nine

and sixteen says, behold, I have graven THEE upon the

palms of my hand. Thy walls are continually before me.

Y'all. God never forgets or abandons us.

And I've always kind of stuck with the scripture that

says he'll never leave us, neither will he forsake us.

He'll be with us to the end.

But this one hit real personal that I am engraved

up on his hand. I think that's about as beautiful

as him counting and knowing the numbers of my heart.

Strand God takes our relationship inter personally, and so when

we have that understanding, then we can feel comfortable with

whatever the situation is that we're going through. Then we

can know without a shout over doubt, that God's grace

has us, his grace has us his unmerited favor, don't

matter what we're in, don't matter what the situation look like.

It might look like, hey, it didn't work out your way. Well,

maybe it didn't work out your way, because if it

had worked out your way, it wouldn't have been God's way.

And I think sometimes we don't see it that way.

What we do is we get in a rudder. We're

going through something, and we just want what we want.

When we want it, we forget that God knows what's

ahead of us, He knows what's around that next corner.

And so with the.

Church of Corinth, Power was encouraging them to hold on.

He was encouraging them that God was faithful, that God

had them and everything they needed, God had already given

that to them. It's the same management that God wants

to give us today. That God has us, that everything

we need is already in God. Even when it talks

about the gifts that were given, those gifts is for

the kingdom, it's for our work. So you might even

feel like, well, hey, I ain't doing enough.

Get up.

You already got what you need. What are we waiting on?

Sometimes we waiting on God. And while we're waiting on God,

God is waiting on us. Or we use that as

an excuse. I know, I heard in prayer this morning

that we want to bind up the excuses.

Yeah, because the excuse is limit us.

They don't limit God because if you don't do it,

God will find somebody else to do it. You think

God really gonna.

Wait on you. God not gonna wait on you.

So what we need to do is get rid of

the excuses on our own. Yeah, we know what we

can do and what we cannot do. Yeah, through Christ

Philippians four one thirteen. Look, that's in the book, that's

the Bible.

And so.

With Paul encouraging them, and I'm finna close so I

can go and take my seat. But Paul encouraging them

is God encouraging you.

Know that God has you.

Know that there's nothing that you go through, or that

you get into, or that you do that God is

not a part of it. The only thing that God

won't take part in is your sin. But Paul wrote

the letter saying, you've been sanctified. Why have you been sanctified?

Because God call you. God didn't call us to leave

us where we were. You are.

God never cause anybody to leave them where they are.

But God calls you again, sanctifizes you, meaning He has

set you apart and He's gonna use you for him.

Don't let the enemy tell you that you can't be

used by God, because yes you can, not.

By not in your own might, but in God.

That's why God sanctifies you first, and then you go

through sanctification.

But God already has you set a party, has.

In mind what he's gonna use you to do. And

sometimes just in our own little self self acknowledging the

looking in the mirror said, I mean we'll count ourself out.

I don't have enough education, I don't have enough this,

I don't have enough money. I don't look like this,

I don't walk like that has nothing to do with

what God can do in.

You and through you.

And then again you just said that you fill with

the Holy ghost. The Holy Ghost will leading guide us

into all truths.

Yeah.

And the washing and the cleansing of the word. If

you're dirty, the Bible will cleanse you. While Satan telling

you you can't never change, You're gonna always be the

same man.

Yeah.

So what I want us to take from this today

is just to remember that God is faithful and his

grace is with us. A chyle to fellowship means that

there's a goal of intimacy and a goal of covenant

when it comes to our fellowship with Christ.

And that's how he closes out this portion of the letter.

He say God is faithful by whom ye were called

unto the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord

Lord gives him.

His high seat.

Y'all, were in fellowship with somebody deceited in heaven.

We're not just in fellowship with anybody.

Jesus, the name that we just so graciously called on earlier, Jesus,

the name that changes things. Amen, the name that God

says is a strong tower where we can run into

it and find safety.

Y'all.

There's power in that name. And now we have been

called into fellowship with this powerful name, with this powerful individual,

with our salvation, with the one who shed his blood

on cavalry for us, took all them stripes on his

back from my head.

Y'all, we are in fellowship with him.

We might take that word lightly, but the Bible don't

take that word likely. God don't take that word likely.

It's one of the reasons why he even called us

the fellowship. How we gonna all be of Christ but

one fellowship with one another makes no sense. That's like

you being my family member, but you won't never come

to none of the family reunions, but you go to

everybody else's family reunion. Makes no sense. Not in you

my family. So we're we're one with Christ. The word

fellowship comes from the Greek word key on no why,

key on no why, which signifies partnership.

We're in partnership with him.

We're partners. We're in thista. We gotta hold on, help

each other out. Partnership. You guys, we're not only in partnership,

but we're sharing in a communion.

It's a command for us to.

Fellowship with one another, just like it's a command for

us to fellowship with our Savior. That's who he is

and that's who we are together. It encompasses both the

vertical relationship with God and the horizontal relationship with fellow believers.

We have been called to partake and fellowship with one another,

and God has graced us to do it. So anything

that comes up, any situation, any circumstance, God has graced

us to do it. So on today, I just want

to say, be in carriage that God has graced us

with his grace. It's not no grace that came out

of the Crackerjack box box.

This is real. Yeah.

And I say that because you find some people again,

it's so many people to take.

God's grace for granted. I don't take his grace for granted.

No, I know that if it was not for God's

grace and for his mercy, because I know where I

come from, and I know where I was headed to

if he hadn't caught me when he caught me a man,

And I know that if he don't keep me now,

what might happen? Because if he didn't keep me now,

I probably go back. Because God keeps me and his

grace and mercy is up on me. I don't even

have an inkling to go back. I used to say,

if something happened to me to where I couldn't come

to church or I couldn't hang around.

And I love y'all.

I love with all honesty, with all my heart, more

of my family than my family, because I've.

Given the testimony.

When I got saved, a lot of my family stopped

talking to me, stopped talking to me.

I was uninvited to the gatherings, and I was cool

with that.

I appreciated them for respecting who I was now because

I wasn't the drunkard anymore.

I wasn't the one that was gonna do all the

cussing and try to fight.

Yeah, So when I got saved, it took a minute,

but the majority of my family knew I was really saved,

especially with the cussing y'all, because I didn't know how

to talk without saying a cuss word.

Yeah. So when he started.

Cleaning up my mouth and cleaning me up, yeah, they

start saying it was for real. My mama arrest her soul.

I remember she would always if you made Mama mad.

That was just it.

You gonna you gonna get it. I don't care who

you was, you were gonna get it. And uh, she

was firing us every so often too. Yeah, we wasn't

gonna get the money what she left when she passed.

She would do stuff like that. And you used to

tickle us too, and uh, I can't remember exactly what happened,

but she would get mad and she would stop talking

to us.

And I called her one day and she said, Johnny.

Marie, I'm not gonna talk to them girls, no more

your sisters. And I was like, Okay, what's going on?

And she kind of told me what was going on.

She said, but I'm gonna talk to you. I'll keep

calling you because I know you done, James. And so

different little occasions, the more I grew in Christ. The

more she could see it, and she was she stopped cussing.

She wouldn't even cuss around me. Yeah, because Johnny Marie

saved you. I. And so once she had that ideal

in her mind, or that belief in her that it

was for real, then she started treating me different. And

so I say that to say this, we can't be

ashamed of who we are, regardless of where we are.

We have to let God's light so shine. I says

that when we let our lights so shine before man,

they see his good work. See, they didn't see me,

they say, save God's good work. Yeah, they didn't see me.

So then they could glorify God, even if they didn't

want to live it for.

Him, but they could glorcaluse. Look, you have changed her.

So that's why it's not safe for us to let

our light not shine wherever we go amongst one another, communions,

communioning with one another, fellowship with one another. And I'm

going to close with this. We can have many challenges,

but we need to make sure that we can face

any challenge with God. If we recognize that God has us,

then that means when we have challenges, we will take

those challenges with God.

We don't back out, we don't tell, we don't run. No. Again,

we are more than conquered was through Christ Jesus. Yeah, yeah,

we got this.

We got this because He got us, so we can

take it. We can not take it easy or feel comfortable.

We don't want to get laxdacious. We don't want to

get lazy.

We don't want to turn into procrastinators when something happened.

Now we want to get up and go moving. Put

a running into our feet. Lord, that I may be

busy about your work. Yeah, strengthen me, lift me up

when I'm down, so that I don't stay down. But

help me to do what you have sanctified me to do.

He called us and set us apart for a reason.

So it don't mean do we sit.

Yeah. Now can't he do it without me? Again? Yeah,

we know he can, but he chose us, y'all. Paul said, called.

That means he looked down and he said, hey, sister Jenny, Hey,

minister Deedra.

By name.

Yeah, he looked there and called us by name and

said come on.

And when we said yeah, he said, okay, Now no,

I can use it.

Let me sanctify hudd sit over here, keep it ready

for my use. We're also always supposed to be in

a place to where God can use us. So that

means when we're going through, we can't get stuck. We

got to go ahead and go through and come out.

So whatever we gained in that process of going through,

remember us to go through. Hopefully we gained some knowledge,

we gained some wisdom, we gained some strength, and you

would think, Okay, how am I gonna gain strength?

And I'm going through because where you weak hissed, strength

is made perfect.

Yeah, so he got you, and when you come out

then he gonna have you ready for the next one.

But it's a continuation process, like sanctification. God is always

moving and always working us. It's us to sit still,

it's not God. So God is not only with us,

but he has us, and we should find confidence in that.

Impress on amen, Amen, Amen,