Welcome And Settle In

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Find out more as you register. Listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today?

The Triangle Part And Finishing Strong

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The year was 2017. The twins uh had not yet made it to junior high school. I think it was their last band concert in their journey in band, because when they made it to junior high, they did not continue band. Uh, so they gave it up. And I don't know. I don't I don't blame them, and I didn't hold it against them. It's okay. They did band through elementary school, but Evan moved, started with the trombone, and was quite a trombone player, followed after my my father. His grandfather was a trombone player. And so Evan played trombone for one year, and then he moved to percussion. And uh our family uh we like rhythm and music, and we're always tapping and drumming, so he fit right in. And on this last concert, he was tasked with um a very a very big part to play in percussion, and he was playing the triangle. And uh, I think on the music sheet it said it began with a triangle crescendo, and so he had a big start, and then he played absolutely nothing until the very end. And he just had to count and pay attention to the music because you know if you're following music and you're not playing anything, if you're not counting, you're gonna be lost and you're not gonna know where you're at. So he had to count. Well, somewhere in the counting in the mess, uh a burst of air flew through that stage and moved his music sheet onto the ground. And his part was coming up quickly, and so he he gathered himself and tried to find the paper and finally picked it up. And by the time he put it up, it was the last little minute and he hit that last note. He made it. When he told her Sean after the concert, she said, What happened? Where'd you go? I couldn't see you for like almost the whole song. He says, Well, mom, I lost the music, but you know what? I found it, I put it back up, and ding dang done. He made it. He made it to the final note. It's the year I learned the promise of God's scripture is true. If you will not get tired of doing good, in due season you will reap if you faint not. Or if you start strong somewhere along the way, the music sheet might fall on the ground, but just get it back up there and ding dang done.

The Growing Season Mindset

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Turn to your neighbor and just say, You got what it takes. And to the one you've been ignoring all service, just look back and say, it is the growing season. We grow in the summer. Kids get taller. We look forward to the next grade. We look for that promotion. We look for that raise. Come on, things grow in the summer. Trees. Uh, we've got some new grass out in the front, it looks beautiful. That's all made possible by your giving to uh kingdom builders, and so thank you for your generosity when you give. It makes things like that easy to do. So thank you for giving. Even in the summer season, we continue to grow in giving. So we're thankful for your generosity. But this is the series to grow, and the summer is the season to grow. And today I'm going to be talking about growing in grace.

What It Means To Grow In Grace

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Growing in grace. Today's key scripture is 2 Peter 3 and 18. And it says this: it says, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen. So grow in the grace. Grow in grace. And if you're going to grow in grace, you've got to understand a few things about grace. And so I want to just spend a moment and just teach or preach or treach about grace. And in my studies, I want to just unpack to you four different areas of grace, four different types of grace.

Saving Grace And Amazing Grace

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And the very first grace I want to talk to you about is saving grace. There is a saving grace that we all get to experience. Ephesians 2.8 says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God. How are we saved? By grace. You can't earn it, you can't pay for it. You can't attend church enough to be saved. It is a gift. You can't raise your hands enough, clap loud enough, shout loud enough. Those are all products of being saved. But that's not what saves you. In fact, I would contend sometimes the very loudest ones are the ones that need the most saving. You shout on Sunday and cuss on Monday. See, grace is a gift, and you're not saved by what you do. It is a gift. A theologian said grace is all about, grace is not about do, do, do. It is about done, done, done. And isn't that what Jesus Christ said, Jesus Christ on the cross, it is finished. What's finished? The penalty of sin over your life because of the grace of God. Listen, I tell you, it's just amazing how the Holy Spirit sets things up. I knew today was a setup. When I opened my Bible for my morning Bible reading, just my personal time, not study time, just personal time. And I read about John Newton. John Newton was an atheist. He was mean, angry. No one wanted to work with him. They put him in the Navy in Europe, in the Europe, the English Navy, and he he was terrible. He got kicked out. He was a terrible, mean person. Atheist did not believe that God existed. And on a ship, he got into a storm and he got so scared he was going to lose his life. He cried out to Jesus. And the Lord saved him. And John Newton on March 10th, 1748, was saved. And the only reason why you don't really know who John Newton is is because you never looked at the fine print in a hymnal book. He's the one that wrote, Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Grace is a gift. It doesn't matter where you're at, how far you are, how bad you've been, we all get to experience saving grace.

Justifying Grace And Right Standing

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Then there's justifying grace. Romans 3 24. And all are justified freely. How? No, that's that was freely. How are we justified?

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Freely.

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There you go. Just an adverb question. We are all justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. You're justified. Justified means you're set right. That you're put in right standing. There's a righteousness that comes to you. You are justified, not because you're learning how to be good enough, but because of the grace that justifies you. Oh, look at this. Uh Galatians 2.21. Paul says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. So it's it's just not because you know what to do when to do it. It is by the grace of God that you're justified. Romans 5.20. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. Meaning, when I look at the law, I realize how terrible I am. Because I always break the law. And so do you. You know why? You know how I know that we live in this guilty state? Is whenever you see a police officer, you wonder what I do wrong. I'm going 25 in Oak Park. I see the officer, I slow down to 20. Why? Because I'm guilty. Typically, I am speeding. Don't speed. I'm always, it's just, but listen, it's it is the grace of God. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. See, we are justified by grace, and I I love to make it simple for you. Justified is this. Just if I'd never sinned. Justified. Just simple. That's like right standing with God comes because of grace and nothing else.

Teaching Grace That Helps You Say No

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The third area of grace is teaching grace. Teaching grace. This is one you probably didn't recognize or know about, never been taught about this teaching grace. But it is available to you. Look at Titus 2 and 11. It says this for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. Watch this. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Wait a second. You mean there's a grace that saves, and there's a grace that justifies, and there's a grace that teaches me how to say no and live self-controlled. Sign me up. You see how, like, we always think about grace as all the things that I don't deserve, that I get God's gift of salvation, Him justifying me, but it also teaches me how to say no and live a self-controlled life. Grace is tied to me being holy, to me having that right standing, to living a sober life, to not being bound by the sin that so easily entangles us. It teaches me to say no. A lot of people think grace is just a permission to sin. Well, what good is grace if you can't use it? But the reality is grace is the empowerment to live above the sin, to be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, not to be bound or controlled by any fleshly desire. And you keep thinking that you're just gonna earn the no by really being disciplined. It's like Nick and I were playing golf a couple weeks ago, and I always go on these trends. I start on Monday morning, I'm gonna have no sugar this week. No sugar. I'm almost I'm gonna get uh vacation's coming up. I wanna look good. So I'm gonna have no sugar this week until vacation. And Thursday rolls around, and Ursh is like, what if we went to Peterson's to get some ice cream? And I'm like, I'm in. I'll just wear a t-shirt all summer long. Like, think about it. It like it's not because I'm strong enough or have a good enough willpower to say no to sin. What did Paul say? The good I want to do, I don't do, and the bad I don't want to do, I do. Who can save me from my most wretched self? Who is it? Only God. Thanks be to God who causes me to triumph, whose grace teaches me to say no. Tell the preacher, hey, you must be really holy to be able to say no to all those things. No, I just have a grace to do it. I have a grace to say no. I have a grace to walk away from it. I I'm not so great, I just have great grace. Look at what it says. This is not in your notes because this is the Holy Spirit dropped this into my spirit this morning, 1 Corinthians 10 13. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. So, first of all, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean the devil's gonna tempt you more than he tempts everybody else. People say, Oh, I got saved, and being saved is so hard. Because I get tempted way more than anybody else. No, you don't. You get tempted just like everybody else gets tempted. But look at this: God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, meaning he actually knows how much you can withstand, and he's given you a grace to withstand it. But then, because he's so faithful, and because the grace, that teaching grace is so good in our lives, look at this. The last phrase, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. So he gives you the capacity, grace, if you listen, grace will teach you to say no. Because the usually the very first little thought in your head is the thought from the Holy Spirit. It is the grace teaching you to say no. And then the next thought is like, but I mean, what's the worst that could happen? Then that's you. And then the next voice, the third voice, is the enemy going, everybody else is doing it. You just gotta figure what voice you're gonna listen to. The teaching voice of grace will help you say no. All right, well, that's all good. That's but that's not what the setup

Enabling Grace That Moves Mountains

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was about. That's not what I came to preach about. Man, I wish I had a B3 organ up in here. And you only know if you know. If you don't know what that means, Google it. So the last grace I want to teach you about is something called enabling. Grace. Enabling grace. See, the reason why God's commands are not too hard to keep is because he provides a grace to live it out. A supernatural empowerment through the Holy Spirit to overcome the obstacle, rise above the challenge, and do what would be impossible if it had not been for the Lord on my side. The children of Israel, we're gonna camp for a second at Zechariah 4. And the children of Israel have been bondage, held captive in Babylon. And they return, and Zerubbabel leads a group of people to rebuild the temple. And he's he's it takes a long time. People are discouraged, they they are tired from working, they're weary, they're worn out, uh, exhausted mentally, emotionally. It seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong. How many feel like you you're in this group of people? Like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. And uh, and so they're tired, exhausted, and they're like, we're gonna they start doubting if they're are we gonna even be able to finish this project? Are we gonna be able to complete this project? And in Zechariah chapter 4, this is what happens. Then he said to me, An angel of the Lord shows up and says, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel. Look at this. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. Now, what had happened was there was what looked like what appeared as a mountain, as an obstacle to complete the project. In the spirit, it was this mountain, and they were praying. What how are we gonna finish this project project? And this is what the Holy Spirit says to this mountain. It says to Zerubo, this is this is how you're gonna complete this project, this is how you're gonna do what seems impossible, not by might, nor by my nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts. And then he says this he challenges the mountain. God does, who are you, oh great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, oh, we went back too early. Where'd we go? Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plane. Meaning, God's about to take the mountain that stands in the way and level it so the project could be completed. And he shall bring forward the top stone or the cornerstone amid the shouts of grace, grace to it. Meaning they were facing what seemed to be impossible odds, and the Holy Spirit, God, shows up as a messenger, shows up to Zerubabus and says, Here's what's gonna happen, and here's how you're gonna complete it. Grace, grace. What's gonna move the mountain? It's not gonna be your strength. You're not gonna pick it up and carry it away. It's not gonna be your power, it's not gonna be your cleverness, it's gonna be the grace of God and enabling grace to move the obstacle. So, so the mountain represents every obstacle between God's promise and the fulfillment of his promise. So I don't know what mountain you're facing today. Where you know God's given you a promise, but there's a mountain in front of you, and I'm gonna tell you the way that mountain gets leveled is grace, grace. Listen, I was up here watering the new grass last night. I knew it was gonna rain, but I wasn't sure when it was gonna rain, so we watered the grass. I'm watering the grass, and I'm just gonna have grace, grace, grace, grace on this building, grace, grace on the finances of this church, grace, grace on the families of this church, grace, grace on the students of this church, grace, grace on the finances of our families in this church, grace, grace on this community. Hey, grace, grace on our neighbors, grace, grace, whatever it might be that seems to be an obstacle in your life, the Holy Spirit is empowering you with an enabling grace to see it through. You say, Well, no, I don't know if I can do that. I don't have the strength. Good, because it's not by strength. Oh, I don't have the power to do it. Great, because it's not by power, it's by the Spirit of the Lord. Look, Moses was like, I can't speak, but he came the mouthpiece for the children of Israel to have an exodus out of slavery. Gideon said, I'm from the weakest clan, and God used an army of 300 to take out an entire nation. Do I need to keep going? It's grace upon your life that makes it possible for you to face the impossible. Enabling grace is the power of God to level the obstacle in front of you. Open the door that's been closed, and open the windows of blessing over your life. And so you just say, Grace, grace. Grace, grace. What do I pray? What do I pray over this situation? Grace, grace. What do I pray over this difficulty? Grace, grace. What do I say to the mountain? Grace, grace. And do the impossible. Listen, I was thinking about this last night. I preached this probably way better in the truck driving around town yesterday. But I will tell you this I was driving and I was thinking, what is it? And I'm sorry, this is just me. This is no one else. This is just for me. But what is it? This our family moved here in 2012, just the six of us. We knew no one in Oak Park. What is it that makes today possible from that small beginning? Grace, grace. That last little phrase. You've got to see this. Then you will know the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small beginnings shall rejoice. It's grace. How did we get here? It's grace. How did God provide this? It's grace. How did God do it for you? It's grace. Don't despise the day of small beginnings because enabling grace is on your side for you to do the impossible. Alright,

When Grace Sustains Weakness

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you don't believe it. But that's okay. It is available to you. It is available to you. To do the impossible. To do what your family says you couldn't do. To raise the business that they said you couldn't raise up. To do the sales, to be the number one sales in the company. It's on you to do it. But enabling grace is not just about the capacity to do the impossible. It's so much bigger. It's so much bigger. In fact, I would ask you this. What do you do when you have the faith to believe the enabling grace is so the mountain can move, but the mountain's not moving as fast as you think it should move? You have the faith to believe the enabling grace, and the promise of God says if you train up your child in the way he should go, when he's old, he won't depart, but he's not come back yet. What do you do when you believe the enabling grace upon your life to be healed from that sickness and that disease? But every time you go to the doctor, he reminds you you still have it. See, if enabling grace was only for the great big, the great impossible, then we would all be like you are right now, going, My God, I believe it, but I just haven't seen it. See, it just in order for you to grow in grace, we all need saving grace. Every one of us. We all need justifying grace because there's no way I'll ever be right except by grace. And we all need teaching grace because I need help to say no. But sometimes that's where we stop growing in grace. And we think, well, all right, we made all that way, so now my gift will make room for itself. Um if I don't feel it, then I'll I'll just I'll wait till I feel it. Uh I base everything on, oh, okay, man, the blessings, as long as the blessings are here, I'll be in it. Or, yeah, I have this goal, and my goal is this, and I know someday I'll make it, so I'll just keep, it's just a goal. But even Paul said, I've not even arrived yet, but I'm pressing towards the mark of the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. Paul didn't think he made it. So no wonder we struggle with enabling grace for the impossible if Paul is like, I've not even made it yet. What? We could say Paul's pretty gifted. I mean, he could preach. Now he preached for a long time. In Acts, he preached so long somebody fell off the wall asleep and died. But thank God Paul's gift wasn't just him preaching. He went down there and prayed for him and he was raised to life. And some of you are like, I'm on my way. I'm gonna wrap it up. So he's gifted to preach, gifted to pray powerful prayers, gifted to write. Writes almost like two-thirds of the New Testament. And here's what I think about theologians like they know he's written two-thirds of the New Testament, but there's this area of concern because we're not really sure who wrote the book of Hebrews. And so theology guys are like, well, we can't credit Paul because he's written everything else. We gotta give somebody, share the credit. Like, what about Bartholomew? Like, could Thomas have written it? I'm like, it's Paul. Everybody knows it's Paul. Because Hebrews. So he like he can write. Paul can do it all, but look at Paul. Second Corinthians 12. Therefore, in order to keep from being conceited, because I'm gifted, because I'm blessed, because God's been working in my favor, because I've had enabling grace in my life, because I've seen the impossible, because I went from worst to first, because I was under, and then God raised me up. He knocked me down and then he built me up in order to keep me from becoming conceited, relying on the gift, relying on the blessing. I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. So Paul's gifted, we can all agree, but in order to keep him level, he's got a thorn. And it's interesting to me that he calls it a thorn because a thorn is something we're stuck by, stuck with. And he's like, so I got this thing, and then he says, then he's like, but then I asked God three times to take it away. Move the impossible, God. Enabling grace has worked in every other area of my life, so get rid of the thorn. But God, man, God is so this this is this is what I'm talking about, enabling grace. So check this out. But God said to me, My grace is sufficient for my power is made perfect in weakness. Meaning, Paul, you've got this thorn in your flesh that you want taken away, but I'm going to give you enabling grace that in your weakness my strength will be perfected. So again, so again I say to the parent, what do you do when the promise is there, but the answer hasn't yet arrived? Grace. What do you do when the doctor keeps giving you the same report? Grace. How do you get through it when it seems like God's working, but for everybody else, but not for you? Grace. Grace. Because look, and then Paul says, therefore, and wherever you see a therefore in the Bible, you have to know what it's there for. Therefore, in order Well, no, no, keep going. You went to the end. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. See, that's where the enemy made the mistake. Because he wants to highlight the weakness, and he wants me to focus on the weakness, but I realize in the weakness is where I find my strength. Listen, I was thinking about this, Miss Ruby. It's only grace that you're still standing today based on the things you faced. It is the grace of God. Morris, Morris, if you're here, are you here, Morris? Do I see Morris? Morris, you're here, but what you faced last week with the loss of your friend, it is God's grace to sustain you and lift you and strengthen you. Furthermore, that you not that you not fear any outcome. Ethan. That for all the things the world tried to put into your life, that you had the sustaining power, the enabling power of grace on your life. To be an example in this house to this generation and far beyond. It is the enabling grace of God. Listen, has anybody experienced the enabling grace of God on your life to sustain you before the answer arrives? Listen.

Invitation To Prayer And Worship

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You need the saving grace of God. If you've never confessed your belief in Jesus Christ, the saving grace of God is in this room to save you from your sins and to lift you out of that Murray clay and to set your feet on a rock. For those of you that are struggling with right standing, and every Sunday you come in and say, Oh, I gotta start all over again. You do not have to start over again. Just get up and keep moving. The Bible says, a righteous man will fall six times, but what makes him righteous is he gets up seven times. In that same passage, it says the wicked man falls one time and he never gets back up again. The difference being why I know you have right standing leaders because you keep standing back up because of justifying grace. Some of you need to lean into the teaching grace and start saying no to that habit. And no to those requests for you to run with the wrong crowd. And no to that temptation of lust outside of your marriage. Some of you need to have the teaching grace of God on your life. Just stand up and say no. Have a backbone. I got up this Saturday morning. I'm sorry, we're gonna be a couple more minutes, but the atmosphere is here, so something's gonna happen. I got up Saturday morning, I did my normal routine, which is I walk, I feed the dogs, I walk the dogs. I get back on Saturday, I'll have a cup of coffee and do my Bible reading. And then now that the farmer's market is open, I run to the market and grab. I'm not gonna tell you what I buy because I don't want you to go buy it and sell out. Before I get there, I buy all the vegetables. I'm kidding. So I go and I get my well, I get I have an assignment because last week I was supposed to take some stuff to knives to get sharpened, and I forgot them. I was so excited to go, so I forgot them. So I had to take those with me. So I just was thinking, well, this is perfect time. Everybody's still quiet, quiet house. I'm gonna run up there real quick. So I get my stuff and get in the car and get up there. I realize I have my dog walking clothes on still. Which is like, you know, just like average sweatpants or jogger pants, and then um I have my Jesus One t-shirt, which is the baptism shirt for Baptism Day on the University of Michigan campus, where all the football players got together and had a massive baptism service for all the students on campus, hundreds baptized. So I'm wearing that jersey, Jesus One, and I'm walking through the farmer's market, a little mismatched, walk my running shoes on, joggers, and then my Jesus one shirt. And this little voice was like, What are you doing wearing that shirt in Oak Park? And um, you know, because some of Oak Park's not real excited about church. And I was like, you know what I today, because I knew what I was preaching, I was like, I just told myself, I had a little conversation with myself getting out of the truck. I was like, today it's the enabling grace. And Jesus won. And I'm gonna walk in here like I own this place and let everybody know Jesus won. And when they look and read the shirt again, I'm gonna say, you know it's true. You know it's true. Enabling grace gives me the power, but it also helps me to have the strength to carry on when it doesn't seem like the battle's going my way. And I don't know where you're at today, but this is what I'm gonna say. If you need saving grace, our team is here. They want to pray with you. We're gonna lead you through a prayer to confess your belief in Jesus. If you need justifying grace, all you need to come to the Bible says, boldly approach the throne of grace and find grace in the time of need. You don't have to hold your head low because you're struggling. The grace of God is in your life to help you be justified. Justified never sinned. Teaching grace? Listen, if you're in this room and you need some enabling grace to get through your current situation, these altars are open. I want to invite you down to come and stand here. We'll pray with you. If you have ever experienced the enabling grace of God and just want to come express your thanks to God, I want you to fill this altar. Listen, we're just gonna spend a moment. It's it's a Sunday morning. We don't even know if the sun's out yet. But you know what? We can take a minute to just thank God for his enabling grace or reach out to somebody who needs the grace of God in your life. So we're gonna start to worship. I'm gonna open these altars. We're gonna pray with you. We're gonna spend some time worshiping. Come on, don't go anywhere, stay with us for just a few minutes.