THE GOD OF SECOND CHANCES | THE EXPEDITION: PART 2

Hey, welcome to Grace Summit Church

podcast. We're so glad you're here.

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his love every day. No matter where

you're at in your faith journey, our

prayer is that this message helps you

know Jesus more, and live with greater

purpose and conviction. Let's jump in.

Good morning.

Last week, Pastor Ben started a new

series called the expedition.

The word would be defined as a journey

or an undertaken for a specific purpose.

And so, I want to just kind of give you

a big idea today as we continue in that

series. The big idea today is God is a

God of second chances. There will be

peaks and there will be valleys as you

saw in the bumper there. But your life

is a journey that God called you on. Who

would be brave enough to just shout out

the year that you were born?

Y'all aren't shy at all.

Here's the thing. Your birth certificate

has a day and a month and a year on it,

right? And that year, if you look at

today's calendar, the way they use our

years, um, they say common era or before

common era. But especially for Jenzers

and younger people, I want you to know

it wasn't always that way. When I was a

kid, it was it was BC and AD.

And BC literally means before Christ. AD

is a Latin term that uh a monk in 1525

came up with. Ano dominy. It means the

year of our Lord.

So remember your year of birth from this

point on as I was born in the year of

our Lord, whatever that year was,

because you are born specifically when

you were for such a time as this on

purpose. You're not an accident.

You're not just a random being. God knew

what he was doing when he had you come

into the earth at the time that he did.

I had lunch with a man this week that

was a hundred years old and he was

fascinating. He was still running

businesses in two or three places in

Michigan. And I leaned over and I said,

"Sir, you're still running those?"

"Well, I'm not in there that much

anymore, but yes, fascinating man."

His journey was to live a 100 plus

years. I personally

don't want to live that long. Can we be

honest in church? Who's with me? It's

like, dude, I'm on the first bus out of

here. Really? Life is good and all, but

I've read what heaven is like, and I'd

much rather be with the Lord. But your

life is on purpose. And in your life,

and on your journey, there will be ups

and there will be downs. There will be

peaks and there will be valleys.

My question to you today

is, how many of the valleys are of your

own doing?

Like a lot of times people are like,

"I'm just in a low, man. I'm in a

valley." You know, bad things are

happening right now. And and they'll

start citing all of the problems and all

of the troubles. But we must ask the

question, did I get myself here? And and

instead of blaming devils and demons and

the, you know, trying to spiritualize

where you are, maybe

it's your own fault.

Can we be honest in church?

Don't blame the devil for your

decisions.

As Pastor Ben would say, you should

write that in your notes.

And so sometimes we cause the trouble

that we're in. And that's kind of what

I'm talking about today. That God in his

grace and his mercy and his love is a

God of second chances.

You don't have to get it right. I wasted

the first half of my life doing it

wrong.

And in my stubbornness and

rebelliousness and and believing that I

knew better than everybody else,

I ruined my life. By the age of 25, I

had pretty much completely destroyed my

life. And I'm glad that God is a God of

second chances.

Let me talk just a little more about

that. It is appointed unto men once to

die. The Bible teaches once.

You have an appointment.

Don't know if yours is past 100.

And we can't assume that older people in

this room are closer to that date. Young

people die, too. It's appointed once,

though.

But if you only live once, you'll die

twice.

The Bible talks about a second death.

Let's define our terms. Death is the

separation.

First of you and your body. That's

physical death. And then you and your

creator would be the second death. That

one's optional.

So if you're born only once, you'll die

twice. But if you're born again, if

you're born twice

over you, the second death has no power.

So if you're born twice, you only die

once.

The choice is yours.

So life is this journey where we get to

choose our path. And sometimes we choose

wrong. And sometimes it was

unintentional and sometimes things just

lined up in such a way that we found

oursel in a terrible situation. And I

want to look at four men in the Bible.

The the Bible itself is a book of second

chances.

You think about Genesis 1 as the

creation of the material universe as we

know it. Genesis 2 is a more zoomedin

aspect of the creation of us, the

pinnacle of God's creation. Genesis 3,

man blows it. And the rest of the Bible

is God giving us a second chance at

being in a relationship with him.

You see it over and over and over in the

people of the Bible, but I've had to

narrow it down to these four for the

sake of time.

The first lesson we'll learn is that

compromise. These are cautionary tales.

The that compromise diminishes capacity.

Judges 16:20. And she said, 'The

Judges 16:20

Philistines are upon you, Samson. So he

awoke from his sleep and said, I will go

out as before at other times and shake

myself free.

But he did not know that the Lord had

departed from him.

Didn't even know it. He had been a

mighty God, a mighty man used of God. He

had done great exploits, but through a

series of compromises,

he's lulled to sleep in the lap of

Delilah. And he doesn't even realize

when you compromise and you allow things

into your life that shouldn't be there,

you edge God out.

The Bible says, "Draw near to God, he'll

draw near to you." So I submit to you,

if you draw near to other sinful things,

God withdraws.

Let me illustrate further in Isaiah 59:1

Isaiah 59:1

and 2. The teaching is this. It's not

that I couldn't save you. It's not that

you're beyond help or that I couldn't

heal you, but your sin has separated you

from God. Your iniquity has hidden his

face from you.

And so through compromise,

through allowing those little things and

talking oursel into the fact that

everybody else is doing it.

Oh, I know what the Bible says, but the

Bible's oldfashioned.

This is the modern era. This is the

common era, Pastor Dan. No, it's an

domin. It's the year of our Lord and my

life is still to be in right

relationship with him and to increase

not decrease my capacity for the things

of God. A lot of people want to be used

by God. They want to start ministries.

They want to teach. They want to preach.

They want to start organizations. But

you must understand this. Compromise

will drive out the presence of God in

your life.

It's okay that it's quiet in here.

uncomfortable with that. Are you?

Compromise diminishes your capacity,

your ability for God to use you. There's

a famous quote from DL Moody, a

preacher, an evangelist who lived in the

1800s. He said, "It is doubtful that the

world has ever seen what God could do

with a man who's fully consecrated to

him."

And he would go on to say, "With God's

help, I will be that man."

Oh, that we would yield more and more of

our life to him. More and more areas of

our life to him, our attitudes, our our

habits, our our things that we do with

our time. Oh, that we were truly

consecrated to him.

What he could do with our life if that

were the case.

We learn from David

about the peril of prosperity.

This is not something you'll hear

preached a whole lot, especially in the

United States.

We are in the world, if you measure by

the GDP, the gross domestic product, the

wealthiest nation on the face of the

earth.

So, we don't like to hear teaching like

this, but I would submit to you there is

a peril in prosperity

that though it's not often talked about

could be detrimental to our spiritual

life.

2 Samuel 11:1. It happened

2 Samuel 11:1

in the spring of the year at the time

when kings go out to battle

that David sent Joab and his servants

with him and all Israel and they

destroyed the people of Amnen and

besieged Rabbi. But David remained at

Jerusalem.

David is prospering.

He's on a mountain peak.

He has expanded the Israel of the the

territory of Israel to 60,000 square

miles.

He has been in leadership for 18 to 20

years. He's never lost on the

battlefield.

He is at the peak of public admiration.

Therefore, he's vulnerable.

Hear me, church. Jeremiah

Jeremiah 5:7

5:7 says, "When I fed them to the full,

then they committed adultery."

There's a peril and prosperity. There

are dangers lurking in you having too

much

when your character is not developed

enough to handle it.

Y'all are like seriously quiet in here.

>> You're listening. That's all that that's

all that matters.

David's on the top of his game. The

sweet psalmist of Israel.

Had won battle after battle after

battle. But it was here that he let his

guard down and he got comfortable with

his prospering.

And he sent everybody else out to war

and he hung out at the house. If you

read the story, it was in midafter

afternoon that David arose from bed.

He had been taking a nap. This is really

hard for me to preach, I must admit,

because I like my afternoon naps.

But David got up from his bed in the

middle of the day and peeked over the

balcony and you know the story, saw a

woman, another man's wife,

sent for her, slept with her, killed her

husband, trying to cover it up. And the

sweet psalmist of Israel went silent.

And for over a year, he wrote no psalms.

He had nothing new to say

because to the first point his capacity

had been diminished through compromise

and prosperity had been the problem. As

I mentioned, you won't hear this kind of

teaching very often. And yet the Bible

in one chapter alone,

there are warnings throughout scripture,

but in 1 Timothy 6

particularly, there are many warnings

about the dangers

of going after riches.

And Paul describes to his

to young Timothy these men as those who

have corrupt minds and are destitute of

the truth.

and that they suppose that godliness is

a means of financial gain.

Have you heard this kind of teaching?

But he goes on to say, godliness with

contentment is great gain. We brought

nothing into the world. It's certain

you'll take nothing out of the world. So

with food and clothing, with these we

should be content. But those who desire

to be rich, hear me, fall into

temptation and a snare,

and into many foolish and harmful lust,

which drown men in destruction and

predition. For the love of money is the

root of all kinds of evil,

for which some have strayed from the

faith and their greediness, and pierced

themselves through with many sorrows.

There is a peril to prosperity. You

could be like the rich young ruler in

Mark chapter 10 who was very rich

Mark 10 · chapter mention

and he was trying to follow Jesus and

Jesus is like just follow the

commandments. He's like I've been doing

that and he said well there's one thing

that you lack. Sell everything you have.

Give it to the poor and follow me. And

the man went away miserable.

Not because he had great riches, but

because his riches had him.

There's a danger

in living in greed.

Might I suggest even now that

if you look at your life and you you

don't have all the things that the

Joneses have,

maybe that's a blessing to you.

The writer of Proverbs 30 said, "Give me

neither riches nor poverty. If I have

too much, I may not I may feel like I

don't need you at all. If I have too

little, I might steal.

Keep me somewhere in the middle."

So rather than going after more and more

and more and more, perhaps

we should settle where we are and

realize God knows what we can handle.

And the most important thing is that you

stay in right standing with him. Is it

not?

The third thing, the third cautionary

tale we learn from the prodigal. No, I'm

yes. From the prodigal, it's the danger

of discontentment.

Luke 15:12. And the younger of them said

Luke 15:12

to his father, "Father, give me the

portion of goods that falls to me. Give

me." So he divided to them his

livelihood.

Some of us pray like, "Lord, this is

Jimmy. What can you give me?

Give me, give me, give me."

I get frustrated with entitled people.

I grew up in an era that I was taught

the the world owes you nothing.

Nobody owes you anything. If you want

something, get off your butt.

and go work for it.

There were six teenagers in my house at

one time, my poor parents,

and they taught us well

because they would give us clothes. They

would give us the necessary things. But

if you wanted the name brand sneakers or

jeans or, you know, the high-end

clothing,

their deal was this. You pay 50%, we'll

cover the rest.

They didn't just buy us the best of the

best so that we could have some kind of

status in high school.

I thank God for that because we made

choices even as teenagers. Do I really

want them shoes if it means I got to mow

16 lawns

or would I rather use that money? Come

on. Where's my Gen Xers? And and prior

You know, there's there's this

entitlement now, like the world owes you

something. That's why we're so offended

with everything.

Oh, he's about to start meddling.

Buckle up.

But there's this discontentment that we

can have that is dangerous.

Dangerous.

And this young man, he was entitled to

an inheritance. It's just that he wasn't

content with what he currently had. Much

like us,

I know there's going to be a mansion in

glory when I die.

Jesus said, "There's a place." We just

sang about it. There's a place for me.

Jesus,

God incarnate,

who created the entire material universe

in six days,

said, "I'm going to go make a place for

you." Friends, that was 2,000 years ago.

He made all this in six days. I think

it's going to be pretty awesome what we

step into. Eye is not seen, ear is not

heard. It's never entered into our heart

the things God's prepared for us. It's

going to be amazing.

But that's our inheritance for then.

But don't have an attitude of give me

now.

Look around at what you do have. I live

in a rented trailer. My newest car is 8

years old. We just bought it. That's

like as new as we get. 135,000 miles. To

me, that's a brand new vehicle.

I've never had a brand new vehicle. I

have a motorcycle that's 22 years old.

It runs, baby.

Are there faster, fancier, nicer

machines out there? Absolutely. Do I

need that to be content? No. I go down

the road just like they do. The same

people driving them BMWs and them

Mercedes. And if some of you are in here

driving those, you don't have to duck

down. It's okay.

But I could drive a Honda Accord. We're

driving the same road, Bubba.

We're on the same streets. You have to

stop at the same stoplight. You ever see

these jokers and these fancy fast cars

and it turns green and they're gone and

you pull up and there they are at the

next light.

You're like, "Yeah, I got here, too."

Muffler's loud and the wheels are

falling off. I had a car literally that

rained into the car when it rained

when I was dating my wife, didn't it?

And it rained so much into the

electrical component box that eventually

fried the thing. And our last drive in

that thing was in the dead of winter in

Michigan and smoke's pouring out of it.

But we got where we needed to go.

Contentment. And the Bible says you can

learn contentment. Paul said, "I have

learned in whatever state I'm in to be

content." So you can look around you and

don't have this entitled give me

attitude. Be thankful for the old beat

up car you have and the roof that's over

your head and the food that you've

eaten.

Be content.

And then we learn finally the fourth man

we'll talk to is Peter

and we learn from him the problem of

pride.

Luke 22:33. But he said to him,"Lord,

Luke 22:33

I'm ready

to go with you both to prison and to

death." Like, "I'm ready. I'm never

going back."

Peter was part of what we call the inner

circle, one of three men who were closer

to Jesus than any of the others. He was

there on the Mount of Transfiguration.

He was there at the raising of Jarius's

daughter. And he walked on water. Nobody

else had done that.

And Jesus called him the rock.

Petra in the Greek. We have in the room

this morning one of the founding members

of a of a group named Petra. Say, "Hey,

Bill.

Listen, you know you're a rock star when

you start a group and call it the Rock."

And this guy, no doubt, thought that he

had accomplished some things. God had

used him.

H spirit's just downloading to me right

now. This happens in the church more

often than we acknowledge.

I found it interesting that when the

devil tempted Jesus, he brought him to

the pinnacle of the temple,

the highest place in the house of

worship

and said, "Throw yourself down. Show off

the pinnacle, the high place." And in

the church when God uses people,

I'm old enough I can talk about this

stuff now. I've I've worked through some

things

and I've seen this tendency for it to go

to our heads

like we're so awesome.

And so we say things like this, I will

never

betray you. I will never I'm willing to

die for you, Jesus.

I can see Jesus in my mind's eye rolling

his his eyes and

saying, "Peter, dude,

before the rooster crows three times,

you'll deny you even know who I am."

But he's a God of second chances. And in

the same statement, he says, "And when

you've returned to me, strengthen the

brothers." We'll get back to that in a

minute.

But pride goes before destruction,

a hotty spirit before a fall.

God opposes the proud. He gives his

grace to the humble. And humility is a

strange thing.

The moment you think you've got it, you

lost it.

So we learn from this servant of God

that pride can be a problem.

Anything that brings you

low,

God can use to keep you humble.

David we first meet in the valley of Ela

pulling stones from the brook in the

valley in the lowest place possible.

He's pulling stones from the brook.

He's low. He's humble.

That's how he could take out the giant.

But when he was high on the balcony

on the mountaintop,

he looked down and

thought another man's wife was for the

taking.

Pride is dangerous and it's

very concealed often.

Oh, that God would humble us whatever it

takes

because then he can really bless us.

We revisit the same men as we have

looked at some cautionary tales. Now I

want to have us look at the way forward.

If you fall into this covers a lot of

territory, these four men, but if you

fall into some error in your life, be it

pride or discontentment

or loving your stuff too much

or compromise.

I want to show you there's a way forward

because God is a God of second chances.

Let's go back to Samson in Judges 16:29.

Judges 16:29

And Samson took hold of the two middle

pillars which supported the temple. And

he braced himself. Somebody say, "Brace

yourself

against them, one on his right hand, the

other on his left."

I would say we learn from him. Brace

yourself. He's not done with you yet.

Position yourself. Posture yourself to

be used again.

He has been humbled.

This once mighty man has had his eyes

gouged out, his hair shaved off, and

he's now a grinder in the prison.

And the occasion of the verse we just

read was them making sport of him, them

making fun of him. Look at look at the

great

Hebrew

champion. Look what he's been reduced

to.

But he humbles himself and he says,

"Lord, use me one more time."

And I submit to you, if you can humble

yourself, brace yourself.

Because Romans 11:29 says that the gifts

Romans 11:29

and calling of God are irrevocable.

If he ever called you, you're still

called.

The world would like to write you off.

This week, Jim Baker died. The headline

read, "Disgraced televangelist dies at

86."

If you saw any news coverage of his

life, it was all about the great fall of

the ptl leader, his failures. That

happened almost 40 years ago.

That's how people handle your failure.

God isn't like that.

The people won't mention the fact that

when Jim Baker went to prison, he spent

five years in prison and he came to a

church called Central Assembly of God in

Moskegan, Michigan, my home church. And

he stood up behind the pulpit on the

other side of all of that mess. And this

broken, humbled man with tears streaming

down his face, shared a message with us

because God wasn't done with him yet.

This was the church his grandfather

pastored. the church where he grew up as

a little boy, sat in those very pews.

God had brought him full circle.

And then he went down to Missouri and

started another show called the Jim

Baker Show. It never reached the heights

of the ptl network, but God wasn't done

with him yet.

And so, just because he made a mistake,

don't listen to the gossip about people

and the mistakes they've made. Huh?

God's a God of second chances, and you

better watch out.

because they'll come back again.

Brace yourself. Secondly, be willing to

accept correction.

Psalm 141:5 was written by David. The

Psalms 141:5

sweet psalmist of Israel begins to write

again.

And he says what was always in his

heart. Let the righteous strike me.

It'll be a kindness. Let him rebuke me.

It'll be as an excellent oil. Let not my

head refuse it. He lived this out. He

was the king. And when Nathan came to

rebuke him about what he had done with

Basheba.

He could have executed Nathan on the

spot. He was the king. Nobody could

question his authority.

But he simply said to the man God had

sent,

"I have sinned."

And there was many

consequences of David's sin. He was

forgiven,

but there were consequences. I believe

you can measure somebody's depth

spiritually by this one thing alone. How

do they respond to correction?

If nobody can tell you nothing because

you heard from God,

you got all the answers. and you're the

only one.

There are people I'm going to get myself

in trouble this morning. There are

people, you know, with these prophetic

ministries and thus sayeth the Lord. And

that's all cool. It's in the Bible, but

it's also in the Bible that we know in

part and we prophesy in part.

And it's also in the Bible. Let them

prophesy, let the others judge.

So if you prophesy something crazy

and we judge that and say that doesn't

sound like God,

this is your moment to decide how

spiritually mature you are.

If you can't receive any kind of

correction,

you're in trouble.

David not only said these words,

but consequences would follow him.

painful consequences. The child that was

born to Basheba would die.

His son Amnen would rape Amnen's

halfsister, also David's child.

And then Amnen, the the other brother,

would kill or Abselum would kill Amnen

over the issue. And then Abselum would

would raise up a bunch of followers and

rebel against his father and run David

right out of the temple

or right out of the the throne that he

was on.

He would suffer these consequences. And

a lot of times I fear people come to

God, you know, because they're hurting

because of what they've done and they're

experiencing the painful effects of

their decisions

which God never wanted them to feel. But

sometimes I think we come to God and

it's like God take this all away.

But sometimes it's better for you

to feel the pain of it. That can be a

great teacher to feel the the the

consequence of it, the pain of it. And

God chasens those he loves.

If he doesn't chasen you, you're

illegitimate. You're not his kid. That's

what the Bible teaches. I knew one man

in 20 plus years of ministry with Teen

Challenge where you know a lot of the

people that came to us had legal issues

and a lot of times I think the mentality

is Jesus is a get out of jail free card.

We don't think that way just those those

teen challenge people you know

just just Jesus is a get out of jail

free card. And there was one man in all

of those years that stood out to me on

this point because he had some heavy

heavy legal issues and they pulled him

out of his program for him to do years

in prison.

The moment he got out of prison, he came

right back to Teen Challenge and

finished what he started.

and he went on and got his family

all together and went on and served God.

That's a heart

of maturity. It's like, "Yeah, I screwed

up. I own that. And if there's

consequences, so be it. God's with me

even in the consequences."

Be willing to accept correction.

Thirdly, we go back to the prodigal son.

Look at his attitude now in Luke 15:19.

Luke 15:19

I'm no longer worthy to be called your

son. Make me like one of your hired

servants.

We learn from him to be a son with a

servant's heart.

You never stop being a son or a daughter

of God.

But your attitude

can shift. He left saying make give me.

He came back saying make me. That's very

different.

Make me like one of your servants.

I know I'm your son. I know you love me.

I know you accept me. But I want to have

the heart where I'm just here to serve

you. I'm just here to expand your

kingdom. I'm here to do your bidding as

a good son should

have a servant's heart,

not a give me heart.

How can I serve? Jesus said,

"I've washed your feet." That's an

example to us. No, we're not going to do

a footwashing service. That's nasty.

That's always been my stance on it. But

anyway, the principle I understand. I

just don't want to touch your nasty

feet. But

I'm just playing. But Jesus said, "I'm

I'm showing you that if I am your

servant, then you should serve each

other.

And when you serve anyone

of his kids, you serve him."

Do you see the difference? We're not as

children saying, "Boy, what's what does

dad owe me and when can I get it?"

It's I love my father. What can I do to

serve him? I know he's got me covered. I

know he's got plans for me,

but what can I do to serve him? There's

no greater joy than serving the Lord

Jesus Christ.

And finally, Peter. All of these three

men we heard both kind of the the verse

that encapsulates their failures and

then their verses of how they got back.

With Peter, there are no words spoken.

But let's read John 21:7. Therefore,

John 21:7

that disciple whom Jesus loved said to

Peter, "It is the Lord."

Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was

the Lord, he put on his outer garment,

for he had removed it and plunged into

the sea,

he didn't say anything. He jumped out of

the boat. And I think that's what we

learn from him. Get out of the boat.

He had denied the Lord. He had he had

felt great guilt for that and shame for

that and and he was was really feeling

down and Jesus had been betrayed and

then beaten and then crucified and then

buried and then rose again and now he's

showing up periodically and the

disciples are just like we don't know

what's happening right now. And so Peter

in one of those lols said I'm going

fishing.

It's what he used to do.

And the other guys are like, "We'll go

with you." And so they're fishing, but

they're not catching anything. Life just

isn't working.

And Jesus shows up and he's like, "Hey,

have you caught any fish?"

Nope.

Cast on the right side of the boat and

you'll find some.

Now imagine you're professional

fisherman.

This carpenter is telling you how to

fish.

But they did it. It's reminiscent of the

call of Peter.

He had been fishing all night and caught

nothing then. And Jesus said, "Launch

out into the deep for a catch."

And he says the same words and they

their net is full.

It's even listed 153 fish that they

caught. But this time it's different

because the net doesn't break. I

preached this in the first service and I

and I knew there was some significance

to the net breaking when Jesus called

Peter and not breaking here. And I was

talking to Pastor Jack after the

service. And this is just an idea,

but I think it may signify that your

ministry is stronger now

than it was then

because

Peter jumped out of the boat

humbled and ready in a way that he

wasn't ready before.

He had walked on water before, but this

time he didn't say, "Lord, bid me to

come."

He said, "Even if there's not a miracle

in this moment, I'm getting out of this

boat I'm in. I'm getting away from these

jokers I'm with, and I got to get to

Jesus."

Can I submit to you? Do what you got to

do to get to Jesus. Get out of the boat

of discouragement. Get out of the boat

of depression. Get out of the boat of

anxiety. Get out of the boat of

blameshifting and of just going over and

over and over all your failures. Get out

of that boat. Get to Jesus.

He's still got more for you to do. And

he would have a discussion with Peter,

reinstate him, and he would do what

Peter had said would happen in the first

place. When you've returned to me,

strengthen your brothers. God is a God

of second chances.

The cautionary tales are warnings to us.

Don't take his grace for granted.

Don't play around with things thinking,

"Well, I can always just repent and get

back."

These men did. You may not be able to.

I knew a man that had been discipled and

was doing great.

And he called me randomly. I hadn't

talked to him in a number of years. And

he said, "Man, I got off track so bad.

So bad." But he said, "I went to church

tonight and God spoke to me and I'm

going to serve him from this point on."

And I and I rejoiced with him. I

celebrated with him. He hung up.

That night, he died in a car crash.

He got a window to get right with God.

But what if he hadn't?

And what if you just

The devil wants to take you out, not

through your failure, but through

condemnation about your failure?

You fail. Listen, we all do.

If you've never failed, raise your hand.

We want to pray with you right now to

start being honest.

We all do.

But it's what you do in those moments.

And the devil wants to then heap

condemnation on you. See what you did.

Even Jesus can't change you. And your

salvation wasn't real. It was all

emotionalism. And there's no substance

to it. Look at you. You're just like you

used to be. You're acting just like you

used to act. But the devil is a liar.

And the devil, he's got a plan. He He He

wants to get you to fail and then he

wants to beat you up over that. But God

is a God of second chances. This is

where you have to just stop right there

and say, "I'm not going to go down like

that. Yeah, maybe I messed up." But on

this journey called life,

I'm not going to be the guy that never

recovered. There were more psalms to

write. There were more more expansion

for the kingdom to happen. There were

more messages to preach.

There was more to do at the father's

house.

There was more to do in the father's

kingdom that would glorify God in spite

of our failures. So, that's not the way

to go. If you can avoid it, avoid it.

But I'm talking to the people that kind

of fell into something unintentionally.

When that's the case, God has a way out

for us. And he'll give you chance after

chance after chance after chance after

chance after chance. His mercies are new

every morning. Aren't you glad he's a

God of second chances?

I'm going to close with this thought as

the worship team comes and the prayer

team comes.

I failed miserably some years ago.

And it was a pivotal moment.

It was a pivotal moment because I felt

like just quitting everything,

life included.

And I had a c-orker that said to me in

passing one day, just a statement

that really ministered to me.

She said, "Dan, if you handle this

right,

God will still get the glory."

And I knew I was at a pivotal moment.

How am I going to handle my failure? Am

I going to let God bring me back and do

humble myself and do whatever I have to

do? Or am I going to Is this going to be

the end of my story?

And I thank God that there was just

enough of a spark in me to keep going

after God. And I remember coming to the

place where it's like, God, if I don't

have a ministry, if I don't have money,

if I don't have anything, if I only have

you, that's enough.

It's not about getting back what I want

for myself. It's about just being in a

relationship with you because I can't do

this on my own.

He's a faithful guide. What he started

in you, he'll complete until the day of

Christ Jesus.

So, I'm going to pray and then we're

going to worship some more. And if you

want prayer for anything, feel free to

come up. We'd love to pray with you. But

Father, we just thank you that you are a

God that hasn't given up on us.

You continue to call us up higher.

And in the wake of our mistakes, Lord,

you can be glorified. And we can learn

things through our mistakes that we

couldn't have learned any other way.

and all things work together for the

good of those that love you and are

called according to your purpose. Help

my brothers and sisters to keep it

moving, Lord. To keep moving forward on

this journey that you might be glorified

in Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to today's

message from Grace Summit Church. We

hope it encourages you to walk out your

faith this week. If you're in the Fort

Wayne area, we'd love to meet you in

person. Join us for a Sunday service at

9:15 or 11:00 a.m. on East DuPont Road,

or connect with us online anytime at

graceummiturch.com.

Have a blessed week, and we'll see you

next time.