Grace That Looks Beyond Our Faults | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

I believe this will be a perfect time to go before the Lord in prayer. If you're not standing, if you will stand with us for the prayer. had a need given to the pastoral team by Sister Retha Tharp this morning and uh we're believing we're believing in Jesus name for that need and for a good report in Jesus name. I got to see um uh brother Donnie Burkett uh this week I got to see brother Kenneth Kirby this week uh both both shutins and got to spend some time with them have prayer with them. Let's just remember them. Of course, I obviously remember Elder Elder brother Burkett and he's also uh he gets to be with us. Sometimes we we call him a shut in and then I look in the back and I see him standing there. Uh but I'm thankful whenever he gets to come to church and when he's not here, I know he's watching by the way of the internet. But if you have a need and you just want to lift up that hand to heaven and signify that need. Oh, come on. You're my brother. You're my sister. And come on. When you have pain, I have pain. When you hurt, I hurt. Come on. When you have victory, I feel victory. But come on, right now, let's pray over each other's needs right here in Jesus name. Lord, you see every hand that's lifted. God, you see every heart that's lifted right now, Lord. every need that's been presented before you, God, before the family of God, before a a believing church, a church that believes in prayer, Lord God, going up before your throne is going to be answered, God, that you care about us, that you love us, that you see us, that you know, Lord God, we falter. You know, we fail. You know, we hurt. You know, we have needs. And Lord God, we bring those before you right now. God, I pray for Sister Rereath. I pray, God, Brother Kenneth Kirby, God, Brother Donnie. God, I pray right now, Brother Bet. Lord, I'm believing Lord God, you're going to bring healing into their bodies, oh God, you're going to bring strength into their bodies, oh God, in Jesus name. Every need, God, that was sent into the prayer request for Lord. I believe, Lord, as those names scroll across the board, that you see those needs and Lord God, you know, Lord, you hear and you understand. God, be the God who answers prayer that you've always been, that you always will be. And Lord God will bless your name. Come on, clap your hands if you believe he is a God who loves and cares and hears. Oh, we thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. Amen. As you return into your seats, and if our kids quests haven't already dismissed themselves, they're dismissed. And just remain standing if you will. I'm sorry. Some of you are kind of I caught you halfway down, I apologize. It's always harder to get up from halfway than all the way. Got nothing to bounce up from. Turn with me in your Bible to uh Ephesians chapter 2 and verse number 8. Amen. Pastor and sister Carpenter are ministering uh I believe in Texas uh this morning and tonight. And uh we're praying uh that God would just give them revival would bless them. Amen. Where they are ministering and I know they will be a blessing. Amen. We know they'll be a blessing and we'll miss them here. Amen. But give them give them honor this morning. Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace are you saved through faith." I'm I'm going to read that again. For by grace, we're saved through faith. And not not of yourselves, nothing you do. It's a gift. Everyone say, "It's a gift. >> It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." cannot cannot save ourselves. I I I've come to teach a Bible lesson about the grace of God. A grace that is undeserved. Yet, right here, it tells us it's required for salvation. And I want to say this, I do apologize. Sunday, Sunday evening, I I I preached longer than I intended to preach, but it is it's 10, y'all. It's 10:38 and I'm just going to go and tell you I'm not going to preach long today. This might be the shortest Sunday morning service that you've ever attended. And I know as upset as you are about that, maybe we'll just let the altar call go and we'll just have church, you know. And I I I really enjoyed I enjoyed the new format of the preliminaries. It just flowed so beautifully. Choir was absolutely amazing. the production. What about Do we understand how blessed we are to have sound like we have here in this room? Any Anybody remember back years ago when it didn't quite sound like it does today? Man, the cameras look so good. They're a little too clear, though. The LUT settings are just perfect. God's just God's God's just given us given us such a such a great place to to worship together. I'm going to preach in your hearing today. Grace that looks beyond our faults. Grace that looks beyond our faults. I I'm reaching for a specific type of person today. I I'm going to reach for the soul that doesn't feel worthy of salvation. And I know some of us, it's kind of hard to believe this. Some of you would be there, but I promise you, they're in this room. Possibly you've you've dabbled into sin so long or you've gone so deep that maybe you've dug yourself into a hole that you don't think you can get out of. I want you to know God's grace is sufficient for you. God loves you. I feel the Holy Ghost. Come on, I want to just lift up your hands right now. Father, oh, I'm so thankful you look beyond our fault. You look behind our beyond our our misdeeds and our mess ups and our hang-ups. And God, the times we falter and the times we trip up and the times, oh God, we find ourselves flat on our face. You look beyond those faults. And Lord God, you see that we have we all have a universal need. And the need is you. The need is your grace. The need is your covering. The need is your love. The hope, oh God, that's going to give us an eternal salvation, Lord, that's going to give us eternity in heaven with you. I I pray, Lord, today, Lord, let something I say as I'm teaching, Lord God, as I'm ministering today, let let something I say, let it dig deep into the roots of every heart, Lord, of every person under the sound of my voice that we can understand that although we're not worthy of your grace, I'm so thankful it's freely given. Come on right now, just lift up your hands high and just love him. I feel the Holy Ghost in this place. I feel somebody's about to get delivered. Somebody's about to be restored. Somebody who thought all hope was a loss and you're about to give up. You're going to say, "I I can do it. I can make it. Woo. Salvation is for me. Salvation is for my home. Salvation is for my family. Oh, in Jesus name. In Jesus name. Grace that looks beyond our faults." You may be seated in the house today. going on going on some 10 years ago and it's hard to believe it feels like yesterday but going on almost 10 years ago I recorded a song entitled He Looked Beyond My Fault and Saw my need and and I I did a little I knew something about the song and I'm about to sing it but I I knew something about the song but I did some research and found out something very interesting about the writer. Daddy Rambo was the writer of this song and and she wrote this song somewhere around 1967 and she was she was already quite an accomplished songwriter when she wrote this song. Matter of fact, you're going to know songs that she wrote. She sang wrote songs like we shall behold him songs like sheltered in the arms of God. Daddy Rambo song. Or what about I go to the Rock? I mean, she's had Whitney Houston and Elvis Presley. She's had Johnny Cash. She's she's had some of the greatest. Dolly Parton herself has recorded and covered many of the songs of Dy Rambo. Even in in 1967, she was already a an amazing songwriter, but she was trying to write a song about grace, but came up with a a major writer's block. And if if you're a songwriter, or maybe you write poetry or or you write literature at all, there are times when when when the writing's good and it just kind of flows and you can write a whole song in about 10 minutes. And there's sometimes when you're working on the same song for a year because you just can't get through that writer's block. And she she had hit a wall. That is until her brother Eddie went to the hospital and never left the hospital because he was diagnosed with stage four cancers and cancer. And the doctors had told him that he only had weeks to live. And so, as you can imagine, Doy spent a lot of time with her brother at the hospital. She would read scripture to him. She would pray over him to sit beside him. And in during that time, Eddie began to open up about his life, about addictions, time he spent in jail, and feeling that he was beyond hope and beyond help. And when she asked him if he wanted to be born again, he said, and I quote, "After the life I have lived, with all my faults, God would never accept someone like me." And those words so moved Die Rambo that it helped her complete her song about grace. Inspired by the struggles of her brother and seeing God's kindness that he didn't deserve and she didn't deserve, she finished the lyrics and she wrote it to the melody of Danny Boy. She sang them to him in the hospital. The story goes that before he died, he gave his life to God. And and this is the cool part that I researched. I have to believe that he followed the biblical plan of salvation because Daddy and her husband in 1967 attended a United Pentecostal church in Madisonville, Kentucky. Matter of fact, Brother Jacob, it's the same church that Robbie Knox pastors today. Greater Lighthouse Church in Madisonville, Kentucky is where Die Rambo and her husband attended church in 1967. Which tells me that for her to say that he had found salvation, she understood repentance and baptism in Jesus name. She understood the infilling of the Holy Ghost. And I know history books, if you look up the history of the song, you're not going to read that. But we just so happen to know what she believed. And I love that because he still looks beyond our faults. Even if you today, if you're here today and you say, "I've had the Holy Ghost. I I've been saved and sanctified most of my life and I still find myself falling." I want you to know today that God is still giving us grace and he's still looking beyond your faults. Come on, just lift up your hands. Come on, worship. He looked behind my fault and saw my need. Amazing grace shall always be my song of praise. For it was his grace that bought my liberty. I do not know just why he came to love me. soul. He looked beyond my fault and saw my need. I shall forever lift my eyes to Calary to view the cross where Jesus died for How far away the grace that caught my fallen soul. He looked beyond my fault and saw my name. Cannot for Christ my life would be lost on life's raing sea with no safe place away from stormy bey way. But Calary cross shines brightly through the darkest storm. Oh, in every trial is the mercy that rescues me. I shall forever live my life to Calary to the cross will change the sky for How much the grace that caught my falling soul. He looked beyond my fault. He looked beyond all of my faults. He looked beyond my fault and my name. Yes, he did. Come on and thank you for it. Come on and thank you for it. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, that's the kind of grace I want to preach about today. Thank you, Jesus. He looked beyond my faults. He looked beyond my faults. Every single fault I've messed up. I faltered. I fallen. He looked beyond my faults. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. One more time, clap your hands before you're seated and thank God. His grace extends so far beyond what we deserve. Amen. It was David. Oh, it was David. One of my favorites I preach. I don't know how I mention David in every message I preach, but I usually I usually mention him, Brother Moses. I usually mention him in the positive. But when we start preaching about grace, we all the sudden realize that he was a man that was he was a man after God's own heart. Oh, but he also had issues. He also had times when he failed God and when he failed his family and when he failed the people of Israel in 2 Samuel chapter 11. We're not going to go there. I'm just going to kind of tell you the story. Oh, but oh, David, the Bible says when kings go out to battle, David found himself in the palace when he sent off the armies. And matter of fact, if you you read the first uh part of chapter 11, you read about uh the victories that were being won by God's people. But then very quickly within the third verse, we find that the king is where he shouldn't be. The Bible says he rose up in the night, a time when women would go to the rooftops to bathe. And you say, "Well, why would you go to a rooftop to bathe? It's very simple. That's where the water was heated from the sun and they would go up in the cool of the night and the water was much warmer than the air and they would bathe bathe upon the rooftops and and the men knew when not to go on the rooftops but there was David looking out and he saw this woman. This Bible talks about her being a beautiful woman and it's no surprise that he allows temptation. He shouldn't have been there. He he had a trigger and he allowed it to trigger his his emotions and desires and and here David is calling for Beth Sheeba to come to the palace. You you know the story. They conceive a child and she uh she calls to David and she lets him know. She says, "I'm expecting I'm pregnant." And so, uh, David trying to cover sin, trying to cover sin, calls in her husband, thinking surely if I call Uriah, her husband, in from the battle, surely he will go and he will spend the night with his wife and he will assume that it's his child when he comes back from battle. Oh, but Uriah was so faithful to God and so faithful to his brothers in arms that he would not go home. He slept in the gate of the palace. And so the Bible goes on to tell how David invited Uriah to a feast the next day. And he said, "Uriah, why? Why didn't you go home? I was told that you didn't go home. I I gave you a time of leave. I I gave you time to go in unto your wife. Why didn't you go in?" Of course, Zariah tells him, "I cannot lay in my bed on a pillow when I know that my brothers are intense on a battlefield." And so, David decides, I I I'll get him drunk. It's a sad story, but he he gets Uriah drunk, thinking surely he will find his way back to he'll stagger back to his home and he will he will go in unto Basheba and they will have a child or he will assume that they have a child together. But that's not what happened because once again, even drunk, he found himself as a man of honor in the gate of the city sleeping. So here we have David and now David's in a pickle. And so David sends him out to the battlefield and tells the captain of the army, "Put him in the front. Send him into the worst part of the battle so that he is killed in battle." And sure enough, now not only is David an adulterer, but now he is also a murderer because Uriah is dead. And and again, even even a man after God's own heart can fall into sin. There shouldn't be anybody under the sound of my voice who thinks you're too above falling into sin. So God sends the prophet Nathan to David. And of course, David doesn't realize that God has already told Nathan exactly what's taking place. And the prophet confronts David with a parable. And he tells David, there's a rich man and a poor man that lives side by side. The rich man has many flocks and herds. The poor man has yet one lamb that he has raised up in his home as a pet. This lamb has eaten his food and drank from his cup. The Bible said, Bible says he considered the lamb as a daughter. Look it up. It's it's very interesting. very much like we would consider a a pet dog, some of you would consider pet cats. But then but Nathan the prophet goes on in the parable to tell the king and says, "But a visitor came unto the rich man and came to the rich man's home and instead of going to his many animals in his herds and flocks and taking a lamb or taking a calf and cooking that and offering it to the visitor. Instead, he went into the poor man and took his lamb and dressed it and cooked it and had it for dinner. And as soon as he got those words out of his mouth, David cried and said, "That man should die." And Nathan looked at David and said, "David, thou art the man." David recognizes right away that the man of God had heard from God. He recognizes his guilt and and Nathan pronounces judgment. He says, "The child born of adultery will die. It's going to be an act of divine justice for your sin, David." Proving that no one is above God's righteous standard. Sin demands justice, and David experiences profound loss and grief as his child passes away. And I I've had unborn children. My wife, we've had unborn children to pass on, but I cannot imagine what it felt like to have a child that was already 7 days old to die. And some of you have been through that. Some of you have been through those horrible seasons. You felt that anguish. You've you you felt oh the fear of of knowing something's wrong with the child and if the child would even live. And matter of fact, you have David. He's fasting. He's wearing sackcloth. He's he he's lying on in ashes and the people are trying to comfort him and he will not be comforted. And he's praying and he's asking God, God have mercy. But justice had to take place because grace does not take the place of justice. Bible says your sin will surely it'll find you out. It'll it'll it'll catch up to you soon. And it's there's not there's not enough grace. And it's grace is not even meant for taking away justice payment a penalty penalty has to be served and despite the justice served but God is a God that forgives upon repentance because we read about in Psalm 51 a psalm written by David at the time of this justice and grace. Matter of fact, look with me in Psalm 51 in verse three. Oh, we're going to kind of skip back and forth throughout this psalm, but this psalm right here is going to minister to somebody who's trying to get back up again. Says, "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have I sinned." This is David praying, "And done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and and be clear when thou judgeest." And we look back and even back at verse one because he begs. He says, "Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." Skip down to verse 7. He says, "Purge me with hissup." This was a a bitter herb. Purge me with hissup and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. David prays, showing how grace not only forgives but rebuilds and revives the soul. My God, I'm so thankful for a God who doesn't leave us where he found us. Come on, every single one of us, we justice has to be served. There has to be a penalty for sin. But oh, I'm so thankful he doesn't leave us uh panalyzed, but he sees us for who we are and where we are. And he brings us and he takes us by the hand. And even in a miry clay, we find ourselves sinking in. He's willing to pull us up and out of that miry clay. And I love verse 10. Verse 10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." He says in verse 12, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit." He recognized that genuine repentance opens the door to God's grace. If I could just stay right here for a moment and preach, if we want the grace of God, we got to be people of repentance. >> We got to be people that admit to what we've done and say, "God, I don't want to live like that. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to look like that and act like that. God, I know I faltered. I know I made a mistake. I know I fell. The Bible talks about sin being. It's when you miss the mark. It's like a archer who draws back the bow and lets go the arrow and misses what he's aiming at at the bull's eye. You miss the mark. I I was trying to be righteous. I was trying to be holy. I was trying to live good. I was trying to raise my family, right? I was trying to bring them up in the house of God. I was trying to train my daughters the way they should live and act and and how they should respect authority, how they should respect their teachers and their school and their pastors and and adults. And I was trying to do all that. But I got offkilter and I started doing things that I shouldn't have done. I tried but I failed. And David right here in this psalm as he's writing this song of of repentance he begins to write oh verse 17 says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. He writes a broken and a contrite or remorseful heart. He says oh God thou wilt not despise. What he's saying right here that's kind of like a double negative. What he's saying right here is he's saying, "God, you love a repentant heart. Uh you won't turn your face away from a repentant heart. Uh these are the things that you love." And after this repentance, God lifts David up, uh using his brokenness as a testimony of grace and proving that even in our lowest moments, God can redeem us and he can repurpose us. Repurpose. That's a that's kind of a that's kind of a new word people are using a lot. used to call things used, pre-owned, but now they call those things the this is a repurposed item. This can be a good purpose again. This could be something that that somebody else thought was junk and somebody else thought was trash and you can buy it and take it home and it could do something for you. It could be a blessing to you. And right here, this is what God is trying to tell David. I know you messed up. I know I had to punish you. I know that child had to die that was born in adultery. But I'm telling you, David, your life is not over because I've got great things in store for you. I've got great things in your future. Matter of fact, your kingdom, you just started ruling over this kingdom. You're going to be known as the greatest king that ever ruled Israel. David, you've got your faults that warrant justice. But I'm God and I'm able to look beyond your faults and I'm I'm willing to offer you grace and redeem and restore you. >> He said in verse 10, I love this. Create in me. I pray this prayer all the time. He said, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." Anybody else pray that prayer? That's like my f I love it. Look at this. That's my favorite prayer to pray because we understand that the father is called the father not because of biological reasons. He's called the father because he is the creator. He's the father of all things. He's the creator of all things. And he didn't stop creating in the book of Genesis. Oh no, he's still creating things. And I don't know about you, but I need a clean heart created for me. Sometimes I feel daily. It might be weekly, monthly, but oh God, I need you to continue to create in me something that I don't that I fear is not inside of me. I need you to create something inside of me a heart that's clean. A heart that you look at and is acceptable unto you. Anybody else pray that prayer? God, give me a heart that pleases you. >> And not only a heart that pleases you, but he says, renew, because God is also a regenerator. and renew a right spirit within me. You're a creator. You're a regenerator. You're a creator. You're a regenerator. This is what David understood. David knew if I can just get in the presence of God. I'm going to fast. I'm going to tear off these kingly robes and put on sackcloth. And that was a cloth of mourning and a cloth of prayer and a cloth of humility. And he said, "I'm going to get in a placeh where I'm going to be able to write this psalm and say, "Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me." I don't know how far you've sunk into this miry clay I've been preaching about, but I know a God who loves us enough. I know a God who has enough grace to pull us out of anything we get ourselves stuck into. >> He's still creating clean hearts. He's still renewing right spirits. And I say, God, make us a church that's openly willing to be transparent before our God. >> Why in the world would we not want to be transparent to God? He can see everything anyways. >> He knows all things. He fills all space. There's no secret we can keep from him. Ask David. David thought he had a plan. David thought he had a secret. But God knows. Oh my God. He knows all things. Uh but at the same time, he can look beyond those faults. Uh and he can say you need me and I am a restorer and I am a regenerator. But let's talk about grace. Let me teach about grace for a moment because I I want to clear up some things because a lot of Christians use grace and mercy as interchangeable terms and they're not. >> They're not the same thing. They'll pray prayers and sometimes they say grace, sometimes they say mercy, and they kind of just kind of push them both into the same the same box together. But grace is God's unmarited favor. >> It's undeserved kindness and love extended to both saint and sinner. >> And if we don't put the saint in there, we're we're all hopeless. A lot of times we can we can preach about salvation and we can talk about, oh, you got to repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins and and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And that's all true and that's the plan of salvation. And we must do it to be born again. However, that's not the only time there has to be repentance. That's not the only time there's got to be regeneration. Because if we only have hope in one time being baptized, as if anything that happens after baptism now somehow gets applied to our life. Oh no, I thank God that baptism wasn't just a one-time event, but baptism still takes place in our living and regenerating of our lives and saying, "God, I don't want to live in sin. God, I know I'm going to mess up, but God, I refuse to stay there and to live there. >> And grace is for the saint. It's for the sinner. Oh, grace is not or grace is undeserved acts of kindness is undeserved acts of love. Ephesians 2:8, we we open with this scripture. For by grace are you saved through faith and then not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Grace isn't earned through works. It's it's it's also not a license to sin. >> I don't know if you if you remember, I don't know, it's been probably a couple decades ago now. Some of y'all weren't alive back then. But I remember when the when when the grace movement hit the Christian world and all of a sudden they started throwing out every standard and started throwing out morals and they they started just preaching grace and it's okay. Come as you are. And I think brother White, I think that's a given. I don't think you could come any other way than as you are. But the problem is they're implying that you could stay the way you came. That's what they're implying. Kind of like just come on. We're going to worship together. we're all going to hug each other. We're going to check the box at church and you go on do whatever you're going to do. It was a movement and and thank God I don't feel that same spirit as much anymore. But but it was a movement that kind of swept through our country where it was just kind of a hey if you sin don't worry about it. There's grace to cover you. Hey oh if you sin don't worry about it. There's grace to cover you. If you go on Saturday night come on you visit and frequent that nightclub it's okay. Just come to church on Sunday morning. Everything's going to be okay. grace is going to cover as if it was a right to sin. That's not what grace is. Oh no, not a license to sin. It's transformative power that empowers holy living. >> That's the difference. That's the difference how we feel compared to what the grace movement feels. I'm thankful for grace, but I don't use it as a crutch so I can sin. >> I use it because it's what is going to cause me to truly want to be holy. It's going to want me. It's going to cause me to want. It's not going to make me We I know we sing songs about he made me walk right. He made me give. Nobody's making you. Holy Ghost don't make you do nothing. >> It's up to you. It's your decision. It's your choice. >> But oh, grace causes us to want to live right. Grace causes us to understand I I don't have to have a low self-esteem and low self-worth and and and crawl into church with my head down and and and bury my head all during worship service because I'm too ashamed to lift my hands. Grace is what causes us to be able to say I'm free. There's no more condemnation in my life. Oh, there's going to be um there's going to be conviction, >> but there's no more condemnation. >> Cuz that's where grace steps in and allows us to be convicted for things we don't do right. But oh, it doesn't condemn us. God is not a condemning God. God is a God that just taps you on the shoulder and says, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, are you really sure you want to be doing that? Hey, are you sure you should have just said that right there? Are you sure? Are you sure you should have went there?" Huh? Because and that's what conviction conviction is such a beautiful thing. A lot of people call it your conscience. Call it whatever you want to call it. But it's what it's that prick in your heart that tells you we ought not do that again. That shouldn't be something we do regularly. That's that's got to be something we refrain from. And I thank God because a graceuh that he pours out freely. Uh a grace of God. Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." And somebody shout, "Amen." >> Grace exposes and transforms our character. Life's messes reveal our weaknesses and our flaws. But it's grace. It's grace that will not condemn but convict. It steps in and begins to help us change from the inside out. >> A lot of people have us confused. They think, "Well, all those holiness people, they they just they just believe that the outside it's all that matters." Oh, no, no, no. You you've got it all wrong. We believe that when the inside changes, it'll be reflected on the outside. Grace does that. Grace does that. Matter of fact, Romans 5 and 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense or the sin might abound or be revealed. But where sin is revealed, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. When there's sin, that causes Jesus, that causes grace to step in and say, "I know sin makes you feel hopeless, but I am your hope. I am your deliverer. I am your savior. Where sin abounds, grace did much more reveal itself. >> The prodical son, oh his failures were exposed. His need was exposed. Grace from his father rebuilt his identity as a beloved son. Think about this right here. He came back. He said, "If I could just come back and be as one of my father's hired servants, I'll live out where the servants live. I'll eat where the servants eat. I'll do the work of the servants. I'll walk in here without shoes on. I'll walk in here without a kingly robe. I won't have a ring on." But oh, the father, let me tell you something. Justice was served. That boy lost his inheritance. >> I mean, don't look too don't look at the at the younger brother and and feel too finely of his situation. He he came back to the house and he was welcomed back to the house but he lost his future. His inheritance when his father passed on he he was on his own justice was served for going off into a faroff country and living righteously. However, that's not where the father left him because when he showed signs of repentance, oh this goes along with my my message about David right here. when he showed signs of repentance and came back to the father's househ over his shoulder he's yelling to his servants bring me a robe bring me a ring bring me shoes for my son's feet and oh go prepare the fatted calf we're going to have a celebration we're going to have a party I know he's paid for his sins and he's lost everything he has oh but he looked beyond his fault and he saw his need not to come back as a servant but to come back as a son. He gave his son his identity back. And I want you to know God is here today and he wants to return to you the identity you lost in sin. >> I wish somebody would just get excited. And I know I came to teach, but I feel a little preaching spirit coming on right here because when I think of the goodness of Jesus, and all he has done for me, my soul cries out, hallelujah, thank God for saving me. I didn't deserve it. It was no work that I did to to do to to get salvation. But I thank God that he saw me where I was, and he still sees me where I am today. And maybe you can sit here with your angel wings all properly behind you. Oh my god. But every person in this room has fallen short. Whether you're wearing a suit, a pair of jeans, whatever you look like today, every single one of us has fallen short of the glory of God. And every one of us, like Paul said, Paul said, "I die daily. I got to put my flesh under daily. I got to repent every day of my life because there's things that are going to trigger me and things that are going to get my attention that should not be getting my attention. And I've got to say, God, help me. God, lead me. God, don't let me go down roads I shouldn't go down. God, don't let me make decisions I shouldn't make. >> God, help us. I want an identity. of a son because a son has rights. A servant, a servant has no rights, but a son has rights. And oh, I just believe when Jesus was telling this story, he was trying to tell a bunch of people who didn't think they needed a savior. They they thought, why is Jesus giving so much attention to all these sinners and all these publicans? But I want you to know the very DNA of Jesus is grace.Uh, for the broken and the undeserving. That's what Jesus his nature is totally grace. Look in Mark 2:17. The Bible says when Jesus heard it heard him talking about how he was eating and dining with publicans. He said unto them, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. No matter our past mistakes, uh, our mess ups, the grace of God through his blood shed on Calvary is available to lift us up and to cleanse us. The question is, will we accept his grace? >> Because there's two types of people. There's a person who doesn't feel worthy of his grace, and there's another person we just read about who doesn't feel they need his grace. Because I don't believe for a moment that Jesus felt that the publicans and the religious rulers were righteous. When he told them he didn't come for the righteous, he was simply saying, "You think you're righteous and you don't need me. I'm coming for the sick. I'm coming for those that need healing. I'm coming for those that are messed up, have messed up marriages and messed up families. people that messed up economy ain't living like they want to be living and aren't driving what they want to be driving or maybe not going to maybe not going to the college you want to go to and maybe you didn't get to marry the person you wanted to marry I don't know all the things you might find yourself living in the lives that you aren't proud of but I want you to know God is a God he oh mercy and grace flow from him the mercy the very thing that we don't deserve oh and the grace that we cannot not earned. I'm so thankful that I need a physician. I'm so thankful to stand here and tell you I'm sick. I'm diseased with a with a disease called sin. And every day of my life, I need the great physician to take control and to take over and to lead me. >> I'm so thankful. I'm almost finished. 2 Corinthians 12:9, he said unto them, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities. This was Paul. That the power of Christ may rest upon me. Going back to King David, his grief over his lost son showed vulnerability, yet grace preserved his throne and his legacy. Oh, I can't help I can't help but to preach the facts are facts. David David and you know, you don't read about this unless you really do a lot of research, but David had 20 children from eight different women. A lot of people know about Michael which Mel never gave him a child. She was made barren. People know Beth Sheba but he he had he had many wives and he had concubines. He had 20 children altogether. But I find it so interesting now. I find it gives such hope that the child, the next child he had from Bath Sheba. When there was repentance and there was grace given, God showed favor for the Puit. God showed favor upon David and Basheba. It never even calls Ba Sheba his wife. David and Basheba. And God gives them a son named Solomon who would be in the bloodline of Jesus Christ, who would be in the bloodline of the grace giver. Come on. I don't know if that means anything to you, but I think to myself that gives me hope that even when I mess up, even when I do things that I know don't make the Lord proud, he can still take me and do something with my future. >> He can still do something out of my bloodline. I can still have a legacy. Oh yes, I can. I can still find where God is going to look and say, I can still do something with you. Not only great and mighty things, David, but I could cause out of your bloodline. I could call the savior of the world to be born. >> Oh my. >> Oh my God. Jesus Christ, thou son of David, >> have mercy on me. Jesus Christ, thou son of David. How was he from David Lo? How was he from David loins? He was from David's loins because it came from Basheba and Solomon. >> Come on. I want you to stand with me. If you're thankful that you've been given grace, if you're thankful that God loves you, Psalm 301, I love going back here. It says, "Thou has turned me from my mourning into dancing. Thou has put off my sackcloth. This is David. And girden me with gladness to the end that my glory may sing praises to thee and not be silent. He said in verse 12, "Oh Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever." >> You know what follows grace? Worship. >> Oh yes it does. When you finally realize that you can't be ugly enough and do enough sin to where God won't look to you and won't deliver you and won't restore you if you get to that place. And I believe you can get to that place this morning and realize that your God loves you. I believe once you get to that place, you can lift up your hands and say, "God, I'm choosing to worship you. I'm choosing to give you thanks and to give you praise. Uh because although I'm unworthy, I know that I serve a God who's willing uh and a God who's able to look over and look beyond my past mistakes uh and my hang-ups uh and my faults uh and you become my need. Why don't just lift your hands and love him in this place right here. Uh thank you for your grace. Thank you for your grace. Oh, amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. I wish you would just pray this song with me. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believe. Though many dangers, through many dangers, toils and snares, uh, I have already come. Let me testify. His grace have brought me safe thus far, and grace is going to lead me home. The Lord has promised good to me. Come on. I wish somebody right here would receive this. The Lord hath promised good to me. His word, my hope secures. He will, my shield, and portion thee as long as life endures. God, I know that's one of our favorite songs, but have you ever stopped to listen to those lyrics? Uh, it's grace that's teaching us. Uh, it's grace that's leading us. Uh, it's grace that's guiding us. It's the faults that we're leaving behind. It's the grace we're finding through the cross. Uh, through the blood of Calvary. It's the grace. I'm about to open this altar today. I want you to know there is no greater feeling than having grace wash over you and you feeling every one of your sins wash away. We preached already about it. Got to repent. First thing you got to do, you got to get in spiritual sackcloth. Bible says in the New Testament, it says, "Don't rend your clothes, rend your heart." And what that simply means is in the Old Testament, they would they would rip their clothes as a sign to man that they were humble or they were they were fasting or they were worshiping. And God says, "I'm not interested in you showing man what you're doing. I want you to rend your heart. Come with a broken heart. Come with a heart that only God can mend. I pray that you will repent today. I We're all going to repent. And I'm going to lead you in a prayer of repentance in just a moment because we all need to repent. But then if you have never been baptized in Jesus name for the remission of your sin. It's what I've been preaching about this whole time. Grace that covers. There was one. There's only one who died for our sin. Only one spotless lamb. There's been a listen. There's been a whole lot of men crucified on crosses especially back in the Roman period. There's been a whole lot of martyrs who died whether it was by vats of oil. We had we had apostles that their skin was flayed off them while they were alive, burn at the stake, crucified upside down. But there's only one spotless lamb who could bring grace to the church today. There's only one spotless lamb. He's the He's really the only one who could bring salvation. And when you go down in the water, you're buried with him. The Bible says, in baptism for the remission, for the removal of sin. Oo, come on. That sin that you repent of, you can't leave it clinging to you. You've got to get it washed away in a pool of baptism. I know it feels so good. Anybody witness with me? Just want to lift their hand and say, "Remember how good it felt when you got baptized?" Come on. Can you remember? I'm looking around. I just want to make sure that you're Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember coming up out of that water. I come up out of that horse trough in January upstate New York. I come up out of that water. It was cold. I was shaking because of cold water I was baptized in. But oh, it felt so good. It was so refreshing. But don't stop at grace. Don't stop at that covering. But keep on going because Peter preached. He said, "Oh, but you shall be filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost if you want it. He's not going to God is a gentleman. He's never going to force himself upon you. He's not going to fill you with something you don't want to be filled with. He's not going to give you something you don't want. But when we open up our lives and open up our hearts and we give our very soul to him, we say, "God, fill me with your Holy Ghost. Let your spirit rain inside of me." I wonder if there's anybody that just joined me in the altar today as we end this service. It's only 11:28. It's still early in the day. I wish we could just come to this altar and crowd in as close as you can and just lift your hands high. I I know I just taught a lesson. I I wasn't looking for any kind of response. I wasn't looking for anybody running the aisles or shouting or dancing. I'm just looking for somebody that needs grace today that says, "Oh, I came in this morning and I wasn't sure if I was worthy of it. And I know that I'm still not. But now I see that I'm a candidate for it because God, I'm sorry for my fault. I'm sorry for my sin. I'm sorry where I failed you. I'm sorry where I missed the mark. Come on, pray that prayer right there to say, "God, I'm sorry. God, I'm not come today to show off my righteousness. I've come today to Oh, God, make it known unto you that I'm a sinner, but I'm thankful I'm saved by grace. Oh God, I've fallen short, but God, you still love me. You still care for me. You still want to see me with an expected end. Oh God, you don't want to see me die in my sin. Your word, your word says uh that it's your will that no man would perish. Uh but every man would come unto you. Every man would receive eternal life. Uh God, I'm just believing God that I am in your sights today. Uh you see me where I stand. You see me where I lift my hands. Uh you see these tears that are well up in my eyes. You see the tears that are dropping, Lord, down my face, Lord God. Can you see my broken heart? Come on, somebody. I know you've been through things. You might be living in a season right now of hurt and despair. Oh, you're for alone because you've been abandoned. You've been forsaken. You might have lost a loved one. You're living the best you can live, but you've lost a loved one. Somebody's died. A husband, a wife, a child, a parent, an aunt, an uncle, a brother, a sister has passed on, and you feel all alone. You feel hopeless. But I want you to know God is here. Uh his grace is amazing. Uh his grace is amazing. Uh oh, his grace is amazing. Uh and he wants to fill you with his spirit. Uh oh, he wants to give you something to give life in life everlasting. He doesn't want to see you lost in your sin. He doesn't want to see you faltering. He doesn't want to see you tripped up. He doesn't want to see you on your face. Uh he wants to see your head back uh and your hands lifted to heaven saying, "Thank you, Jesus, for the blood. Thank you, Jesus, for the covering. Uh thank you, Jesus, that I've been washed white as snow. I've been given a new life. I've been given a new hope. I'm a new creature." Come on, somebody. This could be your day to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This could be your day. receive it in Jesus name. I pray you to receive it in Jesus name. I pray that you'd open up your heart.