Grace waiting for you

So let me tell you a story. So I'm preaching in my church.

I pastor the same church for 26 years.

When God called me to plant a Church in Wales, Jonah came from

Wales. What a rubbish joke.

But never mind. So I'm God called me to plant

this Church in Wales and I had been a youth evangelist for

seven years. So I said, Lord, I've got 6

sermons, I'll give you 6 weeks. That's exactly what I said to

him. 26 years later, I was still pastoring the church.

I handed the church over eight years ago and the law has been

opening doors for me. And I remember standing on

Sunday morning and I'm preaching a message on, on blind

Bartimaeus. We all know the story where

Jesus came along and Bart was there.

He's blind. And Jesus stopped.

Grace stopped and says, hey, Bart, what do you want me to do

for you? No condition, never tithe, never

went to church. Now he was a taker.

He was a user, just a beggar. What do you want me to do for

you? And I'm preaching this message.

And in the middle of the message, a woman stood up at the

back and she stood out in the aisle like this.

And I'm preaching away. She started walking down the

aisle. I thought, oh, she wants to get

saved or blessed. And this is amazing.

And so I keep on preaching. She came to the front, then she

went to the side and I thought, where is security?

She could be a terrorist here. I she went to the side.

I'm preaching. She got up the steps and she

walked across the platform and I'm here pre and she stood right

here. So I'm preaching.

Hello. Oh, she said hello, I said,

what's your name? She said my name is Joan.

She said, what's your name then? Andre?

I'm trying to preach here tit. I said, Joan, what are you doing

up on the stage? Well, she said, she said we've

got a feeding program in our church.

It's the largest feeding program in our nation.

We're feeding 200,000 people a year and it's called Jesus Cares

and we give out 2000 food hampers every month.

So she said to me, well, Ray, this is the only second time

I've been in the church. I said, yeah, I gathered that

Joan, I said, what are you doing here?

When my friend gave me a food parcel and I'm not a Christian,

I've never been to church in my life, but she gave me this food

parcel and I said to her, who's giving me this food parcel?

And she said, oh, the King's church, Jesus lives there.

What a compliment for any church.

Come on, somebody say, Amen, Jesus lives there.

So she said, I had to come to his house to say thank you for

my food parcel. I said, that's wonderful, John,

but you could have done it down there.

You didn't have to come up here. No, but had.

And then, and then the second week I had another food parcel.

This is only the second time in the church, so I had to come

again to say thank you to him. I said, but why are you up here?

She said, well you preaching about this man in the Bible and

Jesus said to him, and he wasn't any He didn't offer anything to

society. He had done nothing for no one.

And yet Jesus said, what do you want me to do for you with no

condition? She said, I haven't been able to

walk without my Walker for three years.

So when you sat down, I said, Jesus, thank you for the food

parcel. Could you heal my legs as well?

And she said, I felt this warmth go through my body.

So I I wonder if I could step out into the aisle without my

Walker. So that's what I did.

And then I thought, I wonder if I can walk down there without my

Walker. So that's when I and then I

thought, I wonder if I can get up them steps there without my I

got up the steps and I walked across.

I couldn't go any further because you were here.

So I just stopped. Get out the way, preacher.

I said, John, that's amazing. I said, that's, that's amazing.

I said John, but listen, so, so, so Jesus has given you a food

parcel, healed your legs. Joan, can I ask you a question?

She said, yeah, would you like Jesus to go home with you?

Jesus doesn't live in the building.

He lives in the hearts of the people who come here.

I said, would you like Jesus to go home with you?

She said never a letter to the Lord right there.

She give a life to Jesus right there on the platform.

Now the whole conversation you can remind the congregation were

like were like this. What's happening here?

Then I said, are you OK, Joan? Yes, she said, can I say

something to the people? I said, OK, I'll give her the

microphone, saying Jesus, if she cusses, it's not my fault.

OK. So I gave her the microphone.

She said, hey everybody, I'm like that man there that in the

Bible I I've done nothing for no one.

I've lived a horrible life, never been to church, don't know

what it's all about, but Jesus gave me a food hamper, healed my

legs, and now he's coming home with me.

She said, why don't you lot do the same?

Come on somebody, hey, why don't you lot do the same?

And I thought to myself, I could have spent six weeks teaching

how to receive from the grace of God.

And God used Joan, an unbeliever, to demonstrate to us

in a practical way how simple and wonderful and easy it is to

receive from Jesus whatever your need is.

I mean, we were stunned to silence.

You see, the church is good at repenting, but not very good at

receiving. And when I contemplated on on

Joan, I believe this, this is not a time for the church to

repent. This is a time for the church to

receive. You see, religion, if religion

had stood in front of Bart, religion would have said, this

is what you have to do for me before I'm satisfied to bless

you. This is what you must do for me.

But Grace turns up and says, no, no, no.

This is what Grace says, What do you want me to do for you?

And you're in a church where religion doesn't stand here.

Grace stands here this morning and he appeals to you when he

reaches out to you and speaks to you and says, what do you want

me to do for you? And when I was thinking about

this message this morning, he said, Ray, I'm standing before

the people asking them, what do you want me to do for you?

Because he wants to give you something this morning.

There are many people in need of an aspect of the character of

God this morning that actually you're desperate for, but you

don't know how to get it. And Jesus stands here and he,

he, he said to me this week, Ray, because I was going to

preach on something else. But he says, Ray, tell them that

grace stands here asking them, what do you want me to do for

you? And he stands here.

And this is because he wants to give you something that will

change your life forever. He wants to dispense a peace

that makes no sense. In other words, the Bible calls

it the peace that passes understanding.

And there are many of you this morning and God gave me a very

simple key on how to release the peace that makes no sense into

your life. Philippians chapter 4, we all

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

know it. Verse six and seven.

Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need and thank Him for what He's already done.

Watch, then you will experience God's peace which exceeds

anything we can understand. His peace, His peace that makes

no sense, will guard your hearts and your minds as you live in

Christ Jesus. It's not a great scripture.

And I, I was thinking of the time when in his resurrected

body, Jesus walks into a room filled with failed, fearful,

flawed people. And in spite of the

unfaithfulness, in spite of the disloyalty, he was about to use

this bunch to change the world. Wow, there's hope for everybody

else in this house. And he walks into this room.

The Bible says the room was locked, the windows were locked,

the doors were locked. And this bunch, this material

God was about to change the world with, were huddled in a

fearful huddle. Nothing powerful about them,

nothing awesome about them. In fact, let me read it in John

John 20:19–22

20 verse 19 to 22. Then the same day and evening

being the first day of the week, when the doors were still shut,

the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.

Now watch this. This was not a prayer meeting.

This was not a meeting full of faith.

This was a bunch of guys terrified to die.

They are just deserted. Jesus failed in their commitment

to him. And here they were huddled, but

Jesus still walked through the wall because he wanted to be

with them. Come on, somebody say Amen,

right? I don't care what wall you put

up, Jesus will just walk through that wall to get to you because

of his incredible unconditional love.

Oh man, this just blesses me and watch this.

And Jesus stood there in the midst of them.

And I can imagine the first thing if I was there after what

I did when he walked to the wall, I'd be like, give it to

us, Jesus. And Jesus walked to the wall to

these failed, flawed, fearful disciples and he said, you bunch

of wazaks, you, you bunch of lo you, three years invested into

your life and look at you dear, what a waste of time.

I should have got another 12. And now he walks into the room

and he doesn't say, listen, I'm going to bless you and

Commission you, but I want to see some repentance here before

I dispense what I'm going to dispense.

I want to see some repentance here.

Now he walked into the room of these failed people and this is

what he said. First thing he said, peace to

you guys, settle down, peace to you.

Watch this. As imperfect as we are, this is

not the time to grovel before God.

This is the time to receive and when, what this And when he said

this, he showed them his hands on his side.

In other words, he says it's finished.

It's no longer about your faithfulness, it's all about

mine now it's no longer about your behaviour, it's all about

mine for you. Come on, somebody say Amen.

So he said peace to you. Watch.

And then he showed them his grace, his finished work.

And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

So again Jesus said to them, Peace to you, as the Father has

sent me, I also send you. And when he said this, he

breathed on them. See gifting came last, anointing

came last. Then he breathed on them and

said, receive the Holy Spirit. You see what I noticed about

this before he sent them out? His priority for them was not

his power. It was not his gifting, it was

his grace and his peace. Come on, somebody say Amen here.

And when I look at the life of the apostle Paul and I'm reading

this and I said, Lord, how do I receive this peace?

How do I live in it? How do I live in this peace?

That makes no sense. Your priority for the disciples

was not anointing and power and gifting, but but grace and

peace. That's the foundation you want

us to have in our lives before anything.

But how do I release it? And then he began to show me the

life of the apostle Paul. I mean, this turbulent,

traumatic life that that that any man could live.

And in 2nd Corinthians 11, you know it well.

He lists all the joys of his life.

He lists all the stuff that he had to go through.

He says, you talk about having a bad day.

Listen, I've had stripes above measure.

I've been flogged more than any of you, he says.

I've been in prison often. I've been facing death often.

Five times I've received 40 lashes 5 * 3 times.

I've been beaten with rods once. I've been stoned.

Not, not stoned, stoned. I'm just letting people know

because you know, I don't know who's here or you know what I'm

saying. Three times I've been

shipwrecked. I've been in peril with drowning

robbers, false brethren, wild animals.

I've been weary. I've been cold.

I've been toiling. Sometimes I've been desperately

hungry. I've been thirsty.

Sometimes I've been totally naked.

I've had sleepless nights like you couldn't imagine.

And on top of that, I've had the care of the churches.

And yet he stood up and he could say this wasn't a list to say,

please feel sorry for me. He was declaring something, he

says. But you know what?

In all that, I have learned to be content.

Come on, somebody. In other words, he was saying, I

have learned to receive and live in the peace.

That makes no sense. And I read that and I've got a

headache and I think the devil's attacking me.

You know what I'm saying? I think, I think.

And then I said, Lord, how? How can a man who's experiencing

all that can live in a peace that passes understanding?

I said, Lord, Lord, how did Paul access that peace?

And the answer was very simple. And this I've said all that to

say this today, because this is what many of you are going to do

this morning. And you're going to find the

peace that makes no sense rushing into your life, flooding

your heart and your mind. And here's the key.

I said, Lord, what's the key? And this is what he said.

Paul learned to be content because he surrendered his

desire to know why. He surrendered his desire to

know why. I sense the anointing of God

here because there are people, you've been fasting, you've been

praying, you've been reading the Bible, you've had people pray

for you, you've had 16 demons cast down to you and it's still

not working and you're here and he's in law.

Ray, keep preaching because you're scratching what I'm

itching. The the answer is simple.

You need to surrender your desire to know why Rock'n'roll,

yabba, dabba Doo, Alibaba, and whatever else you want to say.

Come on, somebody say Amen right here in Romans chapter 8, he

Romans 8 · chapter mention

says at the beginning, he says, I know that the whole of

creation is groaning. I know why all these earthquakes

are happening on the earth is the way it is because I know

awaiting the redemption of the sons of men.

And at the end of Romans 8, he says, I know all things work

together for good. But in the middle of Romans 8,

he says, I don't know. There are some things I don't

know. Everything is great on

hindsight. At the beginning, we pumped

because of the dream. But when you get to the middle

and some of you are in the middle and you just don't know,

watch, that's when the grace of God kicks in.

Come on somebody. That's when the grace of God

kicks in. That's when the Spirit of God

kicks in. Paul says, I get to a place

where I don't know. I surrender my desire to know

why and I just let the Spirit pray.

Pray through me. Come on, somebody say Amen in

this house right here. I'm going somewhere with this

because this is so powerful. Sometimes you will find yourself

in a situation where you just don't know.

I put it like this. Some of you have found yourself

right now in an unplanned place of destiny, A place you never

planned to be. You never planned to be

divorced. You never planned to be sick.

You never planned to be in debt. But here you are, in an

unplanned place of destiny and the enemy is running rampant in

your mind. Worry is your friend.

You don't know how to face the day.

And this is where you are large again, the apostle Paul.

I love his example because he gets on a ship in Acts 27 and

he's pumped. I'm finally going to stand

before Caesar. God's going to fulfill his

promise. I'm going to stand before Caesar

and preach the gospel. He's in change with 270 other

prisoners, but he doesn't care. His spirit isn't changed.

His mind isn't changed. He's free as a bird.

He's excited. Come on, let's do this.

And we all know what happened. The ship goes down.

He's floating on a plank in an open sea.

And I can imagine the devil is saying, where's your God now?

Then where's this prosperity stuff?

Now I can imagine Paul's in, well, I got a plank, I'm still

alive. And then you get watch this.

I saw you can check this out in Acts 27.

He ended up his destiny. Was Rome the planned place?

Malta wasn't in his diary, but here he was on Malta, a place he

never planned to be. Watch the shipwreck.

You talk about having a bad day. The shipwreck, then the guards

tried to kill him. Then the sea tried to drown him.

Then he arrives on land, soaking wet and cold, lights a fire and

a snake tries to poison him. It's getting better by the

moment, isn't it, ladies and gentlemen?

And then this is what got me. The whole island had dysentery.

Thank you, God, I can handle the snake bite.

But the runs. No thank you.

So here he was. So how's Paul going to handle

this? How is he going to deal?

How did he sustain a spirit of contentment in a place he never

planned to be? I believe he says, well, I don't

know why I'm here, but you know what?

I I, I can't understand anything.

I don't know why I'm in this place.

But some things never change. His love for me will never

change His, His mercy for me never changes.

His grace for me will alter. And and more than that, nothing

can change who I am. The devil can do what he wants,

say what he wants, places Mary want, but nothing can change the

fact that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the

world. I am a new creation in Christ

Jesus. Nothing can separate me from the

love of God. So here I am.

I don't know what's going on. Lord, I surrender my desire to

know why Now let's have revival. Come on, somebody say Amen in

this place. Man, I'm preaching.

Must have happy here. Are you still out there?

You see, Paul knew ultimately it was God who called him and it

was God who was going to finish what he started.

You know, one of the nicest ladies I've ever met is on my

GPS in the car. She's amazing.

You know, I'm travelling to London and there's an accident

that I don't know about. So she says take the next exit.

I go. No, love, you don't know what

you're talking about. I've done this one many times,

right? I'm listen, I'm staying on the

M4. So I go, go, go.

And then the next, please take the next exit.

Not like you, idiot. You know what, Rory?

If someone, if someone invented Agps like that, you'd sell

millions on the Saigon. You Welsh was a cute idiot.

Go back to the Shire you Hobbit. I'm not helping you again.

No, no matter how many bad turns I take.

You know what she says? Turn around when possible.

Beautiful. He's fantastic.

Listen, the Holy Spirit is your GPS.

He lives in you 24/7 and I don't get how many times you don't

listen to him. I don't know how many times you

make bad decisions. I don't know how many wrong

takes you take. He will always say come on, come

on, what I started in you, I will finish.

I will get you to where I planned you to be.

Come on man, I think it's fantastic.

Give the Lord a big clap in this out.

I'm nearly finished. I'm nearly through and you

received the word of God this morning.

You see, you may not you may be in an unplanned place of destiny

as a result of a number of things, maybe your own choices,

the decisions of others, tragic circumstances, satanic attack.

But you know, I've learned contentment involves

surrendering to a master plan that sometimes makes no sense.

Abraham arrived there, said why this sacrifice?

David arrived there, why this delay?

Paul arrived there. Why this thorn?

Even Jesus arrived there. Why this rejection?

But the one for me, and I'll close with this, is that very

often, do you know what I've learned?

How many of you serious I I know all of us, but how many of us

seriously would love to be used by God?

We all do. But have you ever thought that

God would sometimes allow you to be in an unplanned place of

destiny for the blessing of others?

And you know, I was thinking about this.

See, watch, Paul was in Malta. Watch.

I've learned that sometimes what's what seems to be going

wrong for you, God is using it to make it right for somebody

else. Paul was in Malta.

Not good for Paul, great for Malta with his stripes, not good

for Jesus. Friday we are healed.

And I'm thinking particularly, I'll finish with this.

I'm, I'm thinking particularly of Joseph in the Old Testament,

you know the story, his brothers tried to kill him, sold him into

slavery, sold him down into Egypt.

He became Prime Minister. His brothers were grovelling

before him. He knew who they were.

They didn't know he, oh, he was. And here he was having the

perfect opportunity to get his revenge. 12 years, living under

a silent heaven, having a dream given to him by God, seemed to

be going into reverse, accused of rape, in prison, forgotten,

you know the deal. 12 years and then God took him out and now he

sees the whole picture and and the cause of his problem was

standing before him. The Bible says he went he wept

privately. Then he came out to his

brothers. He revealed himself to his

brothers and I can imagine they're thinking, oh, we are in

deep yoghurt now. Genesis 45 Joseph to his

brothers watch he had the revelation bad for me.

Now I see it, don't be upset or angry with yourselves.

I know what I would have said. I know what a Rory would have

said. Anyways, watch, don't be upset

or angry with yourselves for giving me all this rubbish in my

life. Don't be upset or angry with

yourself for selling me to the this place.

Watch, it was God who sent me here ahead of you watch to

preserve your life. Let that sink in and I, I, you

know, when I saw that I thought it wasn't about me.

It was about him all the time allowing stuff to go bad for me

to make it good for you. So I'm getting up in the morning

to go to preach or sing and speak to 1000 young people in

Wales. My equipment was in my car.

I was up early, 5:00. I walked out to the car.

There was glass everywhere. Someone had broken into my car

and stolen all my equipment and I'm angry.

I said, God, why didn't you stop the thief?

Why didn't you kill him? I have an opportunity to speak

to 1000 young people and you allow this plonker to come and

steal my equipment and I'm ranting at God like this.

So I had to cancel the school. I phoned the police, reported

the crime and the policeman came up to my house, took all the

details and for some reason at the end of the interview I said

to the policeman, do you like gospel music?

He said, yeah, I do, actually. I said, do you want to, do you

want to take one of my albums? I can't seem to sell them, so

I'm just giving them away now. And he looked at me, Ron, he

looked at me and he said I got all your albums.

I thought you actually bought them now.

He said, I got all your I recognized you as soon as you

came in. I came in here.

I've sat under your ministry, Ray.

So I said, why are you telling me this?

He said last night I shouldn't be here.

The guy that should have been here sick, I had to cover his,

cover his this thing to come up here.

He said last night, I've been away from God for years doing

stuff and said, last night I threw myself on the bedroom

floor and I said, God, if you still really love me, please

show me. And here I am.

And you know the Lord said to me, never tell my people who

have failed to come back to me. He said, tell them I never left.

I said, Peter, he never left, bro.

And right there the tears were flowing.

And then like Joseph, I thought I was so embarrassed at the

goodness of God. And I was so embarrassed how

many times Lord use me? And then when I get used, I

said, Lord, why am I being used like this?

But watch bad for me, good for Peter.

Three years later, I'm preaching in the church, many people

coming forward to receive salvation.

I prayed the prayer. Young man looked up at me and

said, Pastor, can you please forgive me?

I said, of course. I said Jesus has forgiven you,

why should I not forgive you? Well, he said, do you remember 3

years ago? What?

What? My birthday?

What? What, what?

He said, do you remember 3 years ago someone broke into your car

and stole your equipment? You know the guy, I am the guy,

I said. You still have my equipment.

See now I sold it pasta for a good price.

Actually, the thief got saved. Bad for me, but good for them.

Holy Spirit, thank you for this message today.

Thank you for this simple revelation, but yet profound and

life changing. There are people that find

themselves right here, right now, in a place they never

planned to be. But perhaps they've never

thought of this perspective that all things, good or bad, truly

work together under the Master Potter's hand.

Lord, thank you that our destiny is not a patch, it's a quilt.

And sometimes we get stuck in a patch.

Lord, I pray that people will step back this morning and see

that you can take the good patches, the bad patches, the up

patches, the painful patches, and you can soul them into a

tapestry called their destiny. And Lord, many are going to

surrender their desire to know why.

And your peace that makes no sense is going to flood their

heart and their mind. Now what I'm going to ask you to

do, I'm just going to take one minute, but you're sitting here.

The Holy Spirit has taken what I've been saying and applying it

to your heart. And if this morning, and I know

for some of you it's tough, but this morning you were going to

say to God, Lord, I don't know why I'm here, but I'm going to

surrender my desire to know why. And I receive the peace that

passes understanding. You just receive it just like

John. So what I'm going to ask you to

do, if that is you place your hand over your heart, I'm not

going to ask you to stand or raise your hand.

I'm I'm going to ask you to put your hand over your heart.

Father, in Jesus name, right now we surrender our desire to know

why and we receive the peace that passes understanding, the

peace that makes no sense. Lord, we receive it just like

Joan received from you right now.

I receive no conditions and I thank you.