Recorded January 12, 2025, with Rhonda Harrison.

It's time for the Champions in Christ broadcast

with Rhonda Harrison on 1017 Bay FM. Good morning

and welcome to Champions in Christ. We're so

glad you're joining us today on this beautiful

day. It's beautiful because God loves you. He

loves you more than you could ever think or imagine.

His love just is overflowing. to you and to me

and to all those that were created by him. Every

person on the earth was created by God. He breathed

life into a body and then we were created, praise

God. And we know that God loves you today. He

loves me today and I'm so thankful for that love.

There is no greater love than the love of God.

And God loves so much the world that he gave

his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever

believes in him would not perish but have eternal

life. Praise God. And you know, God entrusted

that message of his love with the... with the

men of God who wrote the Bible and they were

inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's not man's writing.

It's God writing through man. You know, in the

book of Acts, Paul mentions this about the message

of his grace that's able to build you up and

give you an inheritance with all those who has

he has set apart for himself. He there is no

person on the planet that he does not want relationship

with. He wants relationship with you today. That

grace comes out of the outflow of his love. What

do you mean? Love is grace. It's mercy. It's

kindness, it's gentleness, it's long -suffering,

it's all the things the Bible tells us love is,

but grace, grace is something he gives. It's

unmerited favor. We don't deserve it, but he

gave it to us anyway. You know, when a child

is born in the earth, the parents look at that

child and there's nothing but love. Why? Because

they created that being, you know, through science.

the egg and the sperm, they created that baby.

And that baby's going to grow up. And those parents

are thrilled to raise that child and be teaching

them. And, you know, that's the way God is. When

He created man, He wanted someone to fellowship

with. He wanted to raise us up. He still does.

As babies are born every minute of every day,

He wants us raised up to know Him. You know,

but the enemy had another plan. And what we're

going to talk about today is God's grace and

just how it just never stops. In every circumstance,

in every situation, God's grace, His mercy and

His love is there for you. And it's for me. But

we have to want it. We have to say, yes, Lord.

And so we're going to start. We're going to start

in second Kings and we're going to go to chapter

six. We're going to tell us a short story. about

God's grace. And it starts out in verse one,

it says, one day a group of the prophets came

to Elijah and told him, as you see, this place

where we meet you is too small. Let us go down

to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of

logs. There we can build a new place for us to

meet. All right, he told him, go ahead. Please

come with us, somebody said. I will. So he went

with them. And when they arrived at the Jordan,

they began cutting down trees. But as one of

them was cutting down a tree, his axe fell into

the, his axe head fell into the river. And he

said, Oh, sir, he cried. It was borrowed acts.

And he's talking to Elisha again. You know, they're

there to build this new place that they have

a bigger area to meet. This was the sons of the

prophets. And so these people knew God. They

were learning of God. Of course, the Holy Spirit

did not live within them, but he was upon them

and led them by the spirit. And so they're there.

And Elisha is. They had over all of these profits.

And so this profit came and said, oh, my ex had

fell in the water. It was borrowed. and immediately

Elisha's compassion he didn't even blink he said

where did it fall the man of God asked and it

goes on and says when he showed the place Elisha

cut a stick threw it in the water at the spot

and the axe had floated to the surface grab it

Elisha said the man reached out and grabbed it

wow I mean in that instance because the man of

God spoke the word of God through compassion

and through love. God's love never fails and

God's power works through love. because faith

works by love. And so this man ran to Elijah

the same way we're to run to God when we need

him. This wasn't a physical healing he needed.

It wasn't the salvation of his soul. It wasn't

any of those things. It was something that can

happen to any of us. You know, something breaks

or something becomes missing that we borrowed.

and he borrowed that axe to help and that axe

fell in, but he ran to the man of God. You know,

when we run to God, he's there every time and

immediately will answer us the same way Elisha

immediately answered. You know, you may not feel

like your answer is there, but it's already there.

Just keep trusting him. Keep trusting him. It's

there. Jesus, you know, he saw the man's desperation

through Elisha, you know, and Elisha showed Jesus's

compassion to the man you know because Elisha

is God's servant and he knew the power of God

because he had been following around Elijah all

those years before Elijah was translated which

was another supernatural act of God and here

God defies physics and brings this axe to the

surface and it floats and then they were able

to get it you know God will will he will Go anywhere

any place to meet you to bring you to the place

of victory When you're in a circumstance if you'll

call on him, you know, this man humbled himself.

He didn't say oh, well there goes an axe I'll

just have to tell so -and -so, you know, who

knows what the story is behind that axe. We don't

get pretty we're not privy to that information,

but You know, it was important to that man. Maybe

it was just important to his integrity to return

something he borrowed. I don't know, but God's

grace and his mercy was there. You know, God's

grace is there for, like I said, every circumstance,

every situation. Let's go ahead and turn to Luke.

We're going to talk in another story. We're going

to go in Luke 22 and we're going to come to the

place where they're about to arrest Jesus. Jesus

is on the earth. He's been telling people about

the love of God and healing the sick and raising

the dead and delivering man from everything that

you can imagine. For all that came to him, he

answered them and it happened right then. He's

a now God. Faith is now. It is now. And so use

your faith today. Humble yourself. Go to him.

Believe him. You know, it says the whole work

of God is to believe. That's what we're to do.

Believe and trust his word is true. You know,

Satan tempted. That's how he tempted Adam and

Eve by getting them to question what God told

them. God doesn't lie. His word is the truth.

You can take it to the bank. Let's go on and

in we're going to go we're in Luke chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

We're going to go to verse 47. And in this verse,

it says even Jesus. a crowd approach led by Judas

one of the twelve disciples and Judas walked

over to Jesus to greet him and with a kiss back

then they greeted each other kissing each other

on the cheek with a holy kiss and it's still

done today in many countries and when the other

decide and when Jesus said to him Judas would

you betray the son of man with a kiss? You know,

Jesus knew he was coming. He prophesied it earlier

to the disciples. He knew Judas was going to

betray him and but he speaks to him and then

it says when the others disciples saw. what was

about to happen they exclaimed Lord should we

fight we brought our swords we will fight and

immediately one of one of the disciples struck

the high priest slave slashing off his right

ear. Oh no here goes here goes the disciples

again and in another. another book it does say

it was Peter John I mean Luke didn't reveal it

was Peter here but in another book of the Gospels

it Peter you know Peter's bold and he wanted

to defend his Lord he loves him but he didn't

understand that Christ came to die for Peter

he came to die for you and to die for me he took

those sins on the cross that we would not live

in detriment and despair and discouragement and

defilement. He came that we would have life and

life abundantly. And so Jesus, immediately it

says in verse 50, and the one of them was struck

the high priest slave slashing off his ears,

but Jesus said, no more of this. He touched the

man's ear and healed him. Jesus replaced that

ear immediately again he defies everything in

the natural with his supernatural power and that

power was by the love and compassion even though

Jesus was in the midst of getting arrested he

wasn't thinking about himself he's always thinking

about you and me he's always got you and me on

his mind he immediately restored that slaves

ear that slave could have lost that ear for life

that's what would happen if you or I got sliced

and we didn't know the power of God. But that

same power that was available then is available

now. It's available now for you and for me. And

this man, whatever your need today, maybe you're

hurting. Maybe you've lost a loved one. Maybe

that pain is real. You know, when we lose a loved

one, the pain is there because we miss them.

When you're born again, Christian, and you lose

a loved one, and I have many. That pain is real.

But you know, when you're a Christian, you know

what the hope of glory is. You know Jesus has

a plan. You know one day you'll be in heaven

restored with that loved one again. So we don't

have to dread that it's over when it's over.

It's not over. Death is not the end. Death is

a doorway. And death will bring us either to

life everlasting, in Christ in heaven or it'll

bring us to hell and that's our choice and we'll

talk more about that in a minute. But God's grace

and his mercy is always there for you whatever

your situation. Again, remember his love for

you never fails. The Bible says love never fails.

The Bible says God is love. He is love. He is

the goodness and the grace and the glory of God

draped over your life. He will fill you to overflow.

You know, we're going to go into the book of

John and we're going. Oh, no, we'll just keep

going in Luke right here. We'll turn over to

verse. I mean chapter 54. I'm sorry, not chapter

54, there's not a chapter 54. Verse 54, if I

get my words right today. Peter, this is talking

about when after they had already taken Jesus

away to begin that road of Via della Rosa. It

says, so they arrested Jesus and led him to the

high priest's home and Peter, Followed at a distance,

the guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard

and sat around and Peter joined him there. A

servant girl noticed him in the fire light and

began staring at him. And finally she said, this

man was one of Jesus's followers, but Peter.

Peter the same one that served Jesus when he

was on the earth the same one that received Jesus

and was flowing in his power helping people to

be healed and set free and delivered and cast

out demons that same Peter. In this instant as

Jesus was taken away and he's standing by this

fire. And this woman sees him and says, you are

one of Jesus's followers. What does he do? He

said, no, I'm not. Wow. Wow. And about an hour

later, someone else insisted, this must be the

one of them because he's a Galilean. But Peter

said, man, I don't know what you're talking about.

And immediately, while he was still speaking,

The crow the rooster crowed why because Peter

denied him three times the same way Jesus. Spoke

to him and said you're going to deny me three

times. But and Peter did and it goes on to say.

Peter left the courtyard weeping bitterly he

was weeping bitterly he was. despondent. He just

was so broken that he had did exactly. He never

thought he would deny Jesus, but at this point

in time, the Holy Spirit could not live inside

of us because Jesus had not died and resurrected.

Because that's a promise of God. Jesus said when

I go to heaven, I'm going to send you the comforter.

I'm going to send you the power. I'm going to

send you the Holy Spirit that will live in you

be with you and all around you that you can have

a successful and victorious life on the earth.

Glory to God. And so both we pick up this story

in John chapter 21 verse 14. This is where Jesus

John 21:14

after he dies and comes back. to the earth before

he ascends into heaven. He had been seen of the

disciples already a couple of times and in verse

14 it says, This was the third time Jesus appeared

to his disciples since he had been raised from

the dead. And after breakfast, Jesus asked Simon,

he said, Simon, son of John, do you love me more

than these? And Simon being Peter said, yes,

Lord, Peter replied, you know, I love you. And

he's Jesus said, then feed my lambs. Jesus repeated

the question, Simon, son of John, do you love

me? And Peter said, Yes, Lord, you know, I love

you. And he said, Then take care of my sheep,

said Jesus a third time. He said, Simon, son

of John, do you love me? And Peter was hurt that

Jesus asked him a third time. And he said, Lord,

you know everything. You know, I love you. And

Jesus said, Then feed my sheep. You know, Jesus

was reaffirming those three denials that he did.

He reaffirmed him. And by him saying, yes, I

love you. Yes, I love you the same way. If we

sin, if we've been walking with Jesus, no matter

how long you've known him, maybe you've walked

with him your whole life. Maybe you you accept

as him as Lord and Savior as a young child, but

you stray. It's OK. He'll restore you when you

return to him. He'll restore you. He loves you

so much. He desires relationship, not religion.

Religion is not relationship. People call Christianity

religion. It's not. It's a life in Christ. It's

a life in Christ. Religion just buries you in

condemnation and fear and doubt and unbelief.

But Jesus brings life and faith and health and

He loves you today. That grace is available for

you. The mercy is available to you. No matter

what life has dealt you, no matter what your

background, what your race, what your creed,

God loves you and His grace is there. No matter

how long you've been away from Him, He's still

waiting on you like the prodigal son. Shake yourself,

get out of the pit and say, What am I doing here?

I need my father. I need Jesus. And he will wrap

his arms around you. Bless you just like the

prodigal son. He'll bless you with a robe, the

ring, and the fatted calf. His grace is so good.

He'll fill you with so much joy. There's a scripture

in the Bible that says, laughter does good like

a medicine. Matter of fact, there's a song we're

going to play today that talks about that laughter

does good. He'll fill you with so much joy. You're

going to overflow with laughter. You're going

to laugh in the midst of the storm, but not.

not in a bad way. You're going to laugh because

you know Jesus has already won. You know it's

victorious. You know He'll help you. You know

He'll take care of you. He loves you so much.

So listen to this couple of songs about His grace

and His laughter. We'll come right back to you

in just a moment. I've done wrong. Mercy help

me see I've been living a lie. I've done wrong.

Mercy help me see I've been living a lie. I'm

writing a song, singing about your goodness.

I started to cry. I'm writing a song, singing

about your goodness. I started to cry. Try and

sing while you're spiritually down You know,

Psalms 5112 says, restore to me the joy of my

salvation. Uphold me with your willing spirit.

I thank God for the joy of our salvation. I thank

God that I have that peace in the midst of every

storm, every angry storm. We can laugh and we

can have joy knowing God's already got it covered.

Why? Because He loves you and me so much. So

right now, if you have strayed, if you've not

walked with him in a while, or maybe you've never

walked with him, pray this prayer with me. Say,

Dear Jesus, I receive you as my Lord and Savior.

Forgive me of my sin. I know I have sinned, but

I renounce that sin, and I just give my life

to you right now in Jesus' name. Fill me with

your Holy Spirit. Fill me with this strength

and this joy. I trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, I want to tell

you you've been forgiven. I want to tell you

God loves you. I want to explain to you that

God's Word is life to you and health to every

bit of your flesh. So get that Bible. Read it.

Find a good church that preaches the whole counsel

of God. has the power of God flowing in there,

and you'll find life and strength and victory.

If you want to contact us, you can by emailing

us at championsincrist3 at gmail .com. We want

you to go out and make it a great day today.

Know that God loves you, we love you, and you

are a champion in Christ.