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Grace | Pr Julian Saw

Acts Klang

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  1. You're listening to a message to go from acts church.

  2. We hope this message will light up your day.

  3. I think I told someone just now that this might

  4. be the shortest message I've ever prepped, but I want

  5. to just dive into it. So I'll start with a

  6. verse from the Bible that was a prophecy about the

  7. birth of Christ. Okay, so you might notice, if you

  8. have your Bibles, you can turn with me to the

  9. Book of Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six.

  10. I also have it up here.

  11. I have not given the full verse, but what I

  12. have over here is just two sentences of that prophecy

  13. of why we celebrate Christmas?

  14. Why do we celebrate Christmas? So let me start with this.

  15. It says in the Book of Isaiah, chapter the nine,

  16. verse six, for unto us, a child is born, unto us,

  17. a son is given. For unto us, a child is born,

  18. unto us, a sun is given. And you know, we

  19. are ten days away from celebrating Christmas. We have many

  20. reasons to love this season, right for many of us

  21. is the time that we take a short break. I

  22. hope or if maybe you're in retail, then it's like

  23. the busiest time of the year. I met someone that's

  24. in marketing yesterday and it's like, oh, you're holidays. I know,

  25. me and my wife are in marketing, so like, you know,

  26. if you're in marketing, this holiday season or Christmas time

  27. might be one of the busiest. It's a time where

  28. we meet our family members, we take some time off

  29. to eat some good meals, maybe a roast turkey. I

  30. don't know why, roast chicken, Indian food, whatever floats your boat.

  31. You know, it's a time where we give gifts, you know, yeah,

  32. we give gifts to our loved ones. Of uh, it's

  33. a time where we do things like bless other people.

  34. You know, we had that Christmas yere yesterday as well,

  35. and you know we give gifts to symbolize how Christ

  36. was a gift to us, to humanity. Right, So, yes,

  37. we celebrate the birth of Jesus. And I want to

  38. start off with this verse to say that unto us,

  39. unto us. So turn to your neighbor and say you,

  40. unto you, unto you, and too me, unto all of us.

  41. Doesn't matter who you are, how you see yourself, doesn't

  42. matter if you're old or young. It doesn't matter if

  43. you're in school or college or you're working or you're retired.

  44. Unto you, can I present to you today? Unto you,

  45. a child is born. Unto you, a child is born.

  46. It doesn't matter where whether you feel worthy or unworthy,

  47. deserving or undeserving, good or bad, obedient or this obedient.

  48. Can I say this morning as I start that unto you,

  49. a child is born. Unto you, a child is born.

  50. And what does a child symbolize? Of course, this child

  51. here is in capital CE and that word represents Christ Jesus,

  52. that was given to humanity as a child. And that

  53. word child, it really represents innocence.

  54. It represents a child usually.

  55. I mean, if they're really young, especially a baby, they

  56. have done no wrong yet until they reach the age

  57. of two years old. I was telling Laura this morning

  58. as you woke up, we walked up church and in

  59. because we came out of the car with Jaden, our youngest,

  60. screaming like I.

  61. Think he's going through the terrible tooth. I remember they

  62. still have that.

  63. And I hope as we start to you know, celebrate

  64. with our friends and family and we go into like

  65. holiday mode, that we remember that.

  66. Really Christmas is this.

  67. God's plan in giving us a child that was completely innocent,

  68. void of sin, to be sacrificed for all humanity. And

  69. also a sun that's an heir of the kingdom that

  70. represents power and salvation is given unto you. And this

  71. whole picture to me, is a form of God's grace

  72. upon us as people, as human as humans. So today

  73. I have just one word for us, and that word

  74. is grace. Okay, So, and I want to speak a

  75. little bit about this, you know, grace. And it's not

  76. really like a Christmas sort of message, but God has

  77. been speaking to me about grace and how He's such

  78. a gracious being, and so I want to break down

  79. that word today. Okay, all right, yeah, let me hear

  80. from you guys a little bit like when when I

  81. say the wood grace right is over here? What what

  82. kind of like what do you think about when I

  83. say the word grace. My girlfriend's name is Grace. No

  84. undeserved present. Nice, hit the nail on the head, let's

  85. go back, right, I know, ah, so undeserved present. So

  86. like you know, if you break that down, like, okay,

  87. I don't deserve this gift, but I'm getting it right, Grace,

  88. Grace can and also to my children mean something you

  89. do before partaking off a meal, like Thanksgiving. You know,

  90. so you say grace and then Michael said grace and

  91. then he starts eating. You know, so, I don't know

  92. where you learned that from. Seriously, he can also mean like,

  93. you know, someone who moves very gracefully, right, Like you

  94. use that term in English a lot. I don't know

  95. whether anyone moves like that, Probably not me, like my

  96. hands kip wobbling around Korean Korean?

  97. Yeah, all, like a danceful ballet.

  98. Dancer, Yeah Korean. I mean, maybe they have some mocking

  99. system for ballet dancers. How graceful is this person? I mean,

  100. if you're a dancer, I hope you're gracefuler and move

  101. in elegance and like a gazelle jumping in the air.

  102. Graceful. You know.

  103. You can also mean like a grace period extra time given.

  104. So let's say I'm contractually required to hand over or

  105. submit my work to this client in a certain time

  106. and I cannot do it for some reason. You know,

  107. family got sick, everyone in my team left the company.

  108. I don't know what happened. All Suddenly the world turns

  109. upside down and you ask for a gray spirit music, client,

  110. Can you give me a gray spirit so that I

  111. have some buffer time to do what I need to do.

  112. You know that what grace comes up in the New

  113. Testament about one hundred and fifty times, so there's a

  114. lot that the Bible speaks about grace. And the apostle

  115. Paul as he writes all the epistles the letters, he

  116. uses that word one hundred times, okay, and a quarter

  117. of those happened in the Book of Romans, Book of Romans. Okay,

  118. So just some facts about the Bible and grace. God'screw

  119. is a free gift, so exactly what makes it? Just now,

  120. this is very important. God describes himself as gracious. That's

  121. one of his character traits, or how he interacts with

  122. the world and earth.

  123. He is gracious. Remember that he's gracious.

  124. Let's read some scripture, Romans three, twenty three to twenty four,

  125. the Book of Romans, Chapter three, Verse twenty three to

  126. twenty four. For everyone has sinned, we all fall short

  127. of God's glorious standard. For everyone has sinned. Okay, we

  128. all fall short of God's glorious standard. And I'm so

  129. glad that it doesn't end in verse twenty three. But

  130. there is a verse twenty four, because if it ends there,

  131. then we all doomed, because we all have fallen short

  132. of God's standard. Verse twenty four. Yet God, in his

  133. grace that word again grace freely. So again it's free

  134. freely makes us right. So he puts us in the

  135. right place. It lifts us up to God's standards in

  136. his sight. He did this, True Christ Jesus, the reason

  137. why we celebrate Christmas, when he freed us from the

  138. penalty of our sins. So we fall short of God's standards,

  139. but we do not receive the penalty of sin, which

  140. is death. Why, because of God's gift of grace. That

  141. makes us right, True Christ Jesus, so simple, right right,

  142. God's grace. Another verse the Book of Ephesians, chapter two,

  143. verses eight to nine.

  144. Fall by grace.

  145. So this word carries is the Greek translation or the

  146. original language in the New Testament, use for the word grace,

  147. For by grace you have been saved true faith. So

  148. we have been saved through faith. And this is not

  149. your own doing. It is the gift of God. So

  150. it's a gift again, and we are saved true faith,

  151. not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

  152. Let's move to the next verse in a book of Romans,

  153. chapter five, verses fifteen sixteen. But there is a great

  154. difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gifts. So here

  155. Apostle Paul is trying to differentiate between that first man

  156. on earth, which is Adam, and the savior of the world,

  157. which is Jesus.

  158. That's a difference.

  159. For the sin of this one man, Adam brought death

  160. to many, But even greater is God's wonderful grace and

  161. his gift of forgiveness to many through this other men,

  162. Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is

  163. very different from the result of that one man's sin.

  164. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift

  165. leads to our being made right with God, even though

  166. we are guilty of many sins. So the contrast between

  167. Adam and Jesus. Let's go to another scripture, Romans eleven,

  168. verse five. So too, at the present time, there is

  169. remnant chosen by grace, And if by grace, then it

  170. cannot be based on works. If it were, grace would

  171. no longer be grace. So let me pause here for

  172. a while, and as we're going to just break down

  173. the word grace from all the scripture I read just

  174. now into a list for help us to help us

  175. picture what grace is.

  176. But I want to say just from this verse.

  177. That we are not old anything like God doesn't owe

  178. us his grace. You you sort of owe someone something

  179. when like like I'm I'm a I'm a working adult, right,

  180. so I I work to earn my wages. So after

  181. a month and of hard work, the company owes me

  182. a salary, right, it's my right to take that salary

  183. and receive it for myself.

  184. I'm old that because of my work. Right. Uh.

  185. If you if you want to ask your sons to

  186. do or to do a chore, okay, you wash the dishes,

  187. I'll give you wondering git right.

  188. Some people might college child labor, but.

  189. Uh yeah, because as a result of the work that

  190. I've done, I'm wage or salary.

  191. Okay.

  192. Grace does not work like that. Grace does not work

  193. like that from the scriptures that we have just read,

  194. and this is very common knowledge to all of us,

  195. and there are many preachers that also share is that

  196. guys to receive salvation. To receive this gift, we don't

  197. need to do anything. God's grace is given to us

  198. true faith, us believing, true Jesus Christ. Right, So I

  199. want to say that first because all of us here,

  200. no matter. That's how I started today. If you're good

  201. or bad, you're obedient or disobedient, if you're last in

  202. class of us in class, I want to say that

  203. God's grace is available to you as a gift.

  204. Okay, so.

  205. You really don't have to be qualified, has no qualification

  206. to receive God's grace. You can be the nicest looking

  207. person in the room or in your mind, the worst

  208. looking person. You can have flaws, and you know there's

  209. no qualification required. Just we just need to receive God's grace. Okay,

  210. it may look a little different. You know, yesterday I

  211. was telling you we had a session with the worship

  212. leaders in Acts, and then one of the things that

  213. we were discussing is how as a leader sometimes you

  214. need to have certain qualities as we raise people up

  215. into leadership.

  216. Right, it's also in a book of Acts.

  217. You know, choose men that have good reputation, you know

  218. it has good values, raise them up to be leaders.

  219. So there are certain things in life where you require qualification.

  220. I want to hire someone in my company. I want

  221. to make sure that this person can do the job. Okay,

  222. So I'm gonna vatue this person's resumey, I'm gonna interview

  223. the person see whether the values aligned to our company values.

  224. I want to gauge whether his technicalities are up to

  225. standard to do the work. But all that is not required.

  226. Let me talk about grace. You do not need any

  227. qualifications to receive grace, and I hope we can remember

  228. that as we meet different people and have the eyes

  229. of grace when we want to give or share the

  230. gospel to anyone, let not our filters of our will's perspective.

  231. Hold back the Gospel to different ones.

  232. Because again, there are no qualifications required to receive God's grace.

  233. If not, grace would no longer be grace. Okay, all right,

  234. So to just help us summarize what we just read,

  235. I've got a list for you because I love having

  236. lists and it helps me to summarize my thoughts.

  237. So what is grace?

  238. According to God's word from the verses we read earlier?

  239. Number one, grace is for the sinner. Okay, So we

  240. read in Roman streets, and in three all of us

  241. has fallen short. We miss the mark of God's standards,

  242. and therefore it applies to us. And I think all

  243. of us have received God's grace. If you are here

  244. in this room, I believe that. If not, we have

  245. a translator to do it. So grace is for the sinner.

  246. Number two, Grace is God's inclination. I think it's very

  247. important because we need to see. Inclination means this, like

  248. I'm inclined to do something. It's my nature, Like you know,

  249. it's my nature to make sure my children are well fed,

  250. because that's who I am as a dad. It's my

  251. nature to try and keep the house tidy like you know,

  252. So I'm inclined to do that. That's my like natural

  253. position or posture when something happens last, right, So all

  254. of us have different personalities as well, But inclination is

  255. God's nature that He's always gracious.

  256. Okay.

  257. Number three, Grace is a gift, as we have said

  258. many times this morning. Ready, But more importantly, it really

  259. is unmerited, so not singlehood, but you don't need any

  260. merit for it, or another word is undeserved.

  261. Yeah, undeserved, So I don't deserve it, but God gives

  262. it to me. Right.

  263. Next, grace is how we receive salvation. Grace is how

  264. we receive salvation. So again, Christmas, we celebrate the birth

  265. of Christ, salvation to the world. And is by grace

  266. that we receive it, Okay, And how do we receive it?

  267. Number five we receive it true faith. So again I'm

  268. just preaching the gospel. Right, we receive it true faith.

  269. And number six true Jesus Christ.

  270. Okay. So grace is a gift.

  271. We do not deserve it, and that gift is salvation

  272. that we received by believing in Him true faith through

  273. Jesus Christ.

  274. And number seven.

  275. Grace justifies us. So this is probably the most important

  276. part because this is how God sort of like draws

  277. us back with him, reunites us back in the kingdom

  278. of God. It justifies me as a person who has

  279. not done right to be come right in God's eyes.

  280. Okay, so he makes us right with God.

  281. So this is this is like the picture of grace

  282. we see in the New Testament, which is one type

  283. of the coin. And I want to quickly bring you

  284. to another another like perspective of what grace is from

  285. the Old Testament because it also comes up in the

  286. Old Testament, and grace in the Hebrew or Jewish language.

  287. Is this word h e n Okay, so you know,

  288. wake up here in this room. So I'm gonna help

  289. us to pronounce this word. So how how you pronounce

  290. this word? Is you say the word hen like a

  291. chicken hen, but you clear your throat in the beginning han.

  292. Can ca. Okay, you want to try it?

  293. One, two, three, Yeah, nice clearing of throats. But what

  294. this is is I think it brings a little bit

  295. of a different perspective to what grace is. So there

  296. are many ways it's being used, but one of it

  297. is like this, to be treated like a treasure or

  298. to be treated favor favorably. Right, So this word he

  299. can represents that. So you you think about right now,

  300. something in your life that you treasure a lot.

  301. Hopefully it can be a person or an object. Hopefully

  302. it is a person.

  303. Think about that thing and how you feel towards that

  304. thing or that person. So it could be your car

  305. or your spouse, spouse, you come before car, the most

  306. valuable or treasured thing in your life.

  307. What is it? Right?

  308. What is it and then think about how you feel

  309. towards that or what are your actions towards that person,

  310. or think that is what grace.

  311. That is how grace is.

  312. Used in the Old Testament, okay, and most almost all

  313. of the time is used when someone higher in status

  314. looks upon someone lower in status with favor.

  315. Okay.

  316. So for example, like if you're a manager, like you know,

  317. and he's a big time manager in a.

  318. I'm just kidding you, I'm just using as illustration.

  319. But you you have like people in your team working

  320. for you, right right, So I mean you don't want

  321. to be favoring different ones, but you can ill mark

  322. who are the high performers in your team.

  323. Okay.

  324. So as a manager or maybe as a parent I

  325. use this very loosely. Or you're a teacher in the classroom,

  326. you can ill mark or identify people in that group

  327. which who are doing well? Okay, So so you you

  328. sort of want to put them a lot on the

  329. pathway of you know, what's the weather, like, uh, create progression,

  330. fast progression? How do I raise him out faster? How

  331. can he take or pick up more of my work? Law?

  332. You know, how how can I ill mark this person

  333. and put him along, yeah, succession planning, you know. So,

  334. so I see that like I see this like that,

  335. and I see this in the eyes of God, where

  336. God has favored us and treated us like a treasure

  337. that he has ear marked for succession planning or to

  338. be upon that fast track to whatever you know. And

  339. and that's what God's grace is. Okay. He he has

  340. a higher status than us, definitely we are for lower status.

  341. But he does not viewers the way he views us

  342. in the eyes of grace. Right. Uh.

  343. We see this example just in if you finding a

  344. lot in the Old Testament, I think about fifty times.

  345. But I'll just give you some examples this morning. In

  346. Genesis chapter thirty nine, verse four, Joseph found favor in

  347. his sight, and this is Partifar. Joseph one favor in

  348. his side and became his personal servant, and he made

  349. him over ceo, over his house and all.

  350. That he owned he put in his charge.

  351. So Partifar, which was the boss of Joseph, treated him

  352. like a treasure, saw potential in him and raised him

  353. up to a place where you know, he had more

  354. authority and more power. So this is how that word

  355. grace is used. In the Old Testament as well. My

  356. second point is this the grace of God that enables us,

  357. grace that enables us. So God's grace is not just

  358. unmerited favor in a sense where you cannot say that,

  359. because God's grace is there for me, I don't do

  360. anything I've said the sinners prayer. I'm in the Kingdom

  361. of God. I received Jesus in my heart. Let me

  362. live my life as I should, and I will until

  363. the day I die and see Christ again in heaven.

  364. Right.

  365. That is, there is one side of the coin, only

  366. because the grace of God goes deeper.

  367. Okay, So I'll just bring you through three more scriptures.

  368. Bear with me. I know it's a lot of scriptures today.

  369. In second cornage of the nine, verse eight, it says

  370. this God is able to make all grace abound to you,

  371. so that, having all sufficiency in all things at all times,

  372. you may abound in every good work. I really again,

  373. God is able to make all grace abound to you,

  374. so that, having alsofficiency in all things at all times,

  375. you may abound in every good work. You start seeing

  376. the words work come up here. Stay in me for

  377. a while, Okay, Uh.

  378. Do you know do you know where where this scripture is?

  379. The verse before this is the verse we often read

  380. during tithes and offering.

  381. Okay, so I readly that verse six and seven.

  382. But this, I say, he who so sparingly and also

  383. read sparingly, will also read sparingly. And he who sows

  384. bountifully will also read bountifully. So let each one give

  385. a sea purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity,

  386. for God loves a cheerful giver. And then it says

  387. God is able to make all grace a bound to you,

  388. so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times,

  389. you may abound in every good work. So when I

  390. read this, I'm like a bit confused. Why how does

  391. my giving? How does how does my giving relate to grace?

  392. And how does grace relate to me abound in every

  393. good work? Because I just said just now that grace

  394. is unmerited, grace is undeserved. I do not need to

  395. qualify to receive God's grace. Right, So I don't know,

  396. I guess asking a question or is it just me?

  397. Right?

  398. How does this relate to work? Let's talk about some

  399. words here. That word abound. We don't use it in English.

  400. A lot, okay. The word abound means like a lot, plentiful,

  401. large amounts, a lot of money, abounding a lot of money,

  402. or abounding in like there's a lot of animals, or

  403. you know that word. A bound means just massive amounts

  404. of something.

  405. Okay.

  406. So so I'll give you a quick glass ration. I'm

  407. wanna talk to my kids again. I don't why'm putting

  408. on my kids a lot today? But uh, one day,

  409. one day Mike can't leave. I got a hold of

  410. my wallet, you know, So they got home my wallet.

  411. Then they're like, I think it's just funning a lot

  412. about money, right because they have a piggy bang they

  413. putting coins and then they now it's full. So in

  414. their eyes they are very rich. They're bounding in coins.

  415. So live I say, oh, I'm going to break the

  416. piggy bang. I'm going to count how much money I

  417. have and go go buy a house. Right, I'm like, okay,

  418. So one day he found my wallet. Then they're like,

  419. they're like, he opened the part where as cash. And

  420. then he's like, hey, Michael, Michael, come here, Micau's my

  421. second son. Look, daddy has seventy ring get in his wallet.

  422. What he has seventy ringgain, let's go buy a PlayStation,

  423. or let's go buy let's go buy some baby play

  424. or something, you know. And and I'm like, yeah, I've

  425. got seventy ring get and there's a lot more way

  426. that came from it. I'm trying to say that his

  427. his perspective of what abounding is quite different from what

  428. I have, you know, So to him that piggy bang,

  429. that cash in my wallet, I'm not very rich, and

  430. I'm just I'm just putting an illustration of what the

  431. perspective of my child is compared to me. Right, So

  432. to me, seventy ring get is okay, you know, and

  433. we can buy a meal for the family. But but

  434. that word abounding now in his eyes could be dead

  435. his piggy bang. And my perspective of what abounds is like,

  436. you know, multiples of that you know, and in and

  437. in God's perspective, it could be infinitely.

  438. Multiples of what I can imagine.

  439. So I want to start with that first, that God

  440. is able to make all grades abound to you in

  441. his standards, in his definition or what abounding means. Okay,

  442. so we have we have this God that is infinitely

  443. more than we can imagine efficient three twenty, right, more

  444. than what we can even think in our own minds.

  445. He has this capacity for us in his grace, much

  446. more than how I have for my sons. That's seventeen

  447. again in the wallet, okay, and it's for us okay.

  448. And then we.

  449. See the word sufficiency, right, Sufficiency is whether it's enough flower?

  450. Am I sufficient? Am I sufficient?

  451. For?

  452. Am I enough to have enough energy to finish up today?

  453. You know?

  454. Do am I sufficient for this task? Is this bottle

  455. of what is sufficient for me to last me the day?

  456. That sufficiency? Okay? So God is saying that we have

  457. that sufficiency in him in all things.

  458. To abound in every good work. Okay.

  459. So this grace that we have that has saved us,

  460. now used by Paul in this scripture in San Corinthians,

  461. tells us that that abounding grace is also for us

  462. to then abound in good works.

  463. Okay.

  464. So we do not qualify for the grace, but the

  465. grace pushes us to obedience to do good works.

  466. All right.

  467. We'll go to another quick scripture. So there's two more

  468. again by in First Corinthians. By the apostle Paul, for

  469. I am the least of the apostles, unworthy. So he's

  470. again saying that, okay, I'm not qualified. And guys, if

  471. you know Paul, so Paul before he was Paul, he

  472. was called Saul. Right, So Paul for Paul was called Saul,

  473. and Saul for his encounter with Jesus on the road

  474. to Damascus.

  475. He was a Pharisee that persecuted the church.

  476. Right, So if you imagine, I think there's no one

  477. in Malaysia like that, I hope, but we all Christians

  478. imagine that's a person that's here that was suddenly rammed

  479. to the door and has a letter from the government

  480. saying that you're all Christians. I'm going to bring you

  481. to prison today and you're going to be tortured and

  482. you're going to be whipped, and you're going to be

  483. He didn't I don't know where he killed anyone, but

  484. this is exactly what he did, okay, back in the

  485. early days. So he persecuted the church. He was the

  486. opposite of what a good Christian is. Basically, he was

  487. the person trying to destroy the church. And that's why

  488. he says this, I am the least of the apostles,

  489. unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the

  490. Church of God.

  491. Right then verse ten. But by the.

  492. Grace of God, I am what I am. By the

  493. grace of God, I am what I am. So he

  494. has been saved by God's grace like a gift again, unqualified,

  495. unmerited grace given to Saul. He became Paul, and his

  496. grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary,

  497. I worked harder, oh man. The word work comes in

  498. again after grace. Right, So that was the effect of

  499. grace that than any of them. He's saying, he worked

  500. harder than any other the other puzzles. Okay, though it

  501. was not I but the grace of God that is

  502. with me. So this sort of summarizes the two sides

  503. of the coins. He was unqualified, undeserved. He probably required

  504. punishment for what he has done from God, but Jesus

  505. to save him on the road to the Masacus with

  506. the bright light. He was converted. He gave his life

  507. to Christ, and he became apostle Paul. And after that

  508. he says this, On the contrary, I worked harder, and

  509. I'm when I read this, I'm like, oh man, because

  510. it does something for myself. Like when my mom asked

  511. me after I graduated university, like what.

  512. Do you want to be when you grow up? Where

  513. do you want to work?

  514. Which company do you aspire to contribute to the society in?

  515. And the first thing that came to my mind was this,

  516. no kidding, I want to retire.

  517. I want to I don't know, I'm gonna hear that.

  518. Who has who already there?

  519. I'm like, oh man, I'm like, so title going to

  520. UNI and studying, Like now it don't work.

  521. What you know? What do you bring me to this world?

  522. Mom and Dad?

  523. Yeah, but that's our calling on earth until the day

  524. we have our last breath, is to live out that

  525. call of God. Okay, I mean it's different for all

  526. of us the lives to be impact, whether our children

  527. or the students that we have, or the church or

  528. the ministry that we have. We are called to work hard,

  529. work harder, work harder. And I was reflecting on this

  530. because some some days, to be honest, I don't know whether

  531. Max or whoever that is in ministry or Jason Martin

  532. feels this.

  533. There are some days where.

  534. I wish or pray silently that God will just give

  535. me a break or like you know, bring me home.

  536. That that would be, that would be easiest.

  537. But then, yeah, Laura might be might be a bit angry,

  538. you know, so so that.

  539. You know, so they can chill a little bit lah

  540. holiday or something.

  541. Yeah, but I want to say today that God's grace

  542. abounds for us to abound in good works. And like

  543. Paul said, he worked harder, He worked harder.

  544. Okay, bear with me.

  545. We've got uh one more scripture and then I'll end

  546. with this. And this is in second Corrientes of the twelve.

  547. Verse nine, Jesus says to Paul, my grace is sufficient

  548. for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Again,

  549. Jesus says this to Paul's in rad in the Bible,

  550. my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made

  551. perfect in weakness. So again some contexts about where this

  552. verse comes from. The verse before this is basically Paul

  553. praying to God asking God to remove this tone in

  554. his flesh.

  555. Right.

  556. So he's he he's saying that there's this thing that

  557. is irritating me to use a smaller word, or does

  558. this thing in my life that is agonizing that you know,

  559. he says comes from Satan. He doesn't even describe what

  560. it is, but as something in the life of the

  561. apostle Paul, who's a minister of God, that is causing

  562. him pain, that is causing him distress, that is causing

  563. him to be.

  564. Uncomfortable, and ones that thing to be removed.

  565. He called it a ton in the flesh, a torn

  566. in the flesh, like if you get pricked by a

  567. rose torn you want to remove it straightawayla okay. And

  568. he's praying to Jesus to remove this porn, remove this discomfort,

  569. remove this fill in the blanks, this person, this situation,

  570. this need, this illness. It can be anything for us.

  571. We don't even know what Power was going through. But

  572. this is how Jesus replied, My grace is sufficient for you,

  573. for my power is made perfect in weakness.

  574. So I kind of like the other side of the coin.

  575. Better let me talk about grace being an unmerited gift

  576. and favor from God. But there's also this part where

  577. God's grace is there.

  578. To help us through different situations.

  579. Yeah, in verse ten, I didn't put it here, but

  580. it was so refreshing to see how Paul responds to

  581. Jesus after Jesus said this, So imagine with me. I'm

  582. asking my creator, my Savior, to help me with the situation.

  583. Remove from remove me from this situation, take me pain

  584. away from me, you know, make it all better. And

  585. then he says this, My grace is sufficient for you,

  586. for my power is made perfect in weakness. And how

  587. does power respond? How does power respond? He says this,

  588. So now I'm glad to boast about my weakness so

  589. that the power of Christ can work through me.

  590. Verse ten.

  591. That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and the insults, hardships, persecutions,

  592. troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak,

  593. then I am strong. So when we quote this verse,

  594. we have to really imagine the whole context of what

  595. Paul was going through and that his grace is sufficient

  596. for us.

  597. Let me end with this.

  598. I remember preaching a few few months ago, maybe two

  599. months ago, about we've talked. We've been talking about this

  600. our worry and anxiety.

  601. Right.

  602. You know, it affects all of us. Uh, it affects

  603. me someone as I can't sleep. You know, some of

  604. us are constantly bombarded in our minds by different cares

  605. and worries and real situations in our life that causes

  606. us strife. Okay, so I gave you three Remember three

  607. possible outcomes of our worry. Right, simple tree possible outcomes

  608. of our worry. Next light, you know, if you're worried

  609. about something, actually the statistics say, right majority, I think

  610. it was eighty five percent of the time, what you're

  611. worried about doesn't happen. Right, So you're actually worry about nothing.

  612. Now you're wasting energy. Yeah, eighty five percent of the time,

  613. according to actual stats, what you're worried about actually doesn't happen.

  614. Okay.

  615. Number two, what you're worried about happens, but it's not

  616. so bad.

  617. Oh I'm worried.

  618. You know it's gonna rain tomorrow and the whole climate

  619. is gonna be flooded. My car's going to be totaled,

  620. my house is going to be ruined. I gotta go

  621. and you know, buy extra insurance. Then it grislts. The

  622. next day is it did rain, but not so bad?

  623. And sometimes we are in the third situation, what you're

  624. worried about happens, but God gives you the grace and

  625. strength to pull through, so if I can invite the banner.

  626. I want to end with this because I know there

  627. are situations in our lives where, just like Paul, we

  628. we want to be removed from the situation and we

  629. want to be saved. We want to we want God

  630. to intervene. But there I believe God does that, gives

  631. us that Breakthroughe gives us that healing many times. But

  632. we can also see in a Bible where there are

  633. situations where God says, my grace is sufficient for you,

  634. and my strength is made perfect in weakness.

  635. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

  636. information on our church, please visit aschurch Org. We are

  637. also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this

  638. week is going to be a good week. I hit

  639. for you.

  640. God bless