# Abounding Grace

Key Passage: 2 Corinthians 9:8
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your Bible to 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians chapter number 9. 2nd Corinthians chapter number 9. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I have a favorite verse for a couple of years. And then I’ll go to another favorite verse for a couple years. And this has been my favorite verse for the last couple of years. And I’ve preached on it or rounded about it. Couldn’t help want to go back to my favorite verse tonight. I felt like the Lord would have us do that. So 2 Corinthians 9 and verse number 8. And we’re going to talk tonight about drinking freely God’s grace. Drinking freely from God’s grace.

Now let me say a word. Many of you’ve been around for a while. You’ve heard these, but about grace. We’ll get us all on board about what is grace. Great definition for it is God’s riches. God’s riches at Christ’s expense.

A good picture definition is, of course, in heaven. It’s where all the good things come from—every good thing you ever have had, every good thing you ever will have, every bite of ice cream you ever have or ever will have, amen, you know. All the good things come down from above. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, the Bible tells us.

And it comes down into my life, into your life, down this inner state, I’ll call it this road, called grace. Now, you say, well, it’s because I did this, that and another. Well, friend, the best you can do is filter eggs.

And God does take note of our little effort, but honest truth is this is grace. And in this road through which all these blessings into your life flows is grace. The road is paved with the blood of Jesus Christ. All the blessings—financial blessings, health blessings, marital blessings, and children, whatever it may be, blessings—it comes down through the road of grace.

And grace is so much more than we think. Sometimes we think, well, grace is just when I mess up. It is that, but it’s much more than that. It’ll keep you from messing up. It gives you strength to make every step. And if we can just tap into this thing of relying not on our strength, but on His grace, my strength is limited. His grace is unlimited.

And let’s look at this verse real quickly, and I kind of dive into this thing. Second Corinthians chapter number nine, verse number eight. Second Corinthians nine, verse number eight. Would you stand please as I read the Word of God together? 2 Corinthians 9 and verse number eight of God’s word. If you’re there, would you say amen? Amen. Good. Here we go.

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.”

Now, some will say, and it’s true, that the context here is about money, about finances. That’s true. But you’ll notice in this verse, God puts many words that shows you He’s including everything in this verse here. Would you read it with me again and just kind of see that, if you would? Verse 8: “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.”

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer as we get started tonight. Dear Father, Lord, would You teach me, teach us to live by the grace that You have available? Forgive me sometimes; I’m just struggling trying to make it in my own strength. You’ve got all the grace I need available there. Lord, would You use tonight to kind of remind us the grace is there? Help us to drink freely from the grace You earned for us, Jesus. Father, in the end result, we’ll know it all as You. The glory belongs to You. Father, grow us in that, would You please? Courage us where we need it. And Father, well, thank You, Bradley, and praise You for what You do. Well, we’re asking this: Father, would You give me the attention of all the people? Let them get from Your word. Well, thank You for it. Father, we’re asking in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Years ago, there was a military true story years ago. They were doing desert training. And the last part of this training was where they had to go out several men in sports training, opt-type training, and they had to live in the desert for several days on their own. They did not have all the equipment we have in our day and time. They were on their own. They’re in the desert, and they were left there. They would be picked up in a couple days, but they had to live on their own for a couple days in the desert. They had given them supplies they needed, no more for a couple days.

They had canteens of water, but they had been instructed over again: “Now, you’re going to get thirsty. Daytime, 119, 120 degrees. You’re going to be sweating and you’re going to want to drink a lot, but you only have a certain amount of water. And you only drink when you need it and don’t drink anymore. Don’t drink it all, you know, drink it all the first day, it’s gone, and you’re out there a couple of days.”

The honest truth is they came back, and one man they could not find. They ended up finding his body a little off course. And they began to look through his body and his belongings, and they—true story—he had died, and they looked at his canteens, and they were basically full of water.

Now, they did the autopsy and whatnot, and they found out he had gotten dehydrated, had a heat stroke, lost his mind, and that’s how he wandered off and died out there. The main thing he needed was water, and it was on his side the whole time. But he would not drink, and it got sunk into his mind so much, “I can’t drink, I can’t drink,” that the one thing he needed—water—was there, but he didn’t drink from it.

Now, God has all the grace you’ll ever need. That’s what He’s saying right there. Did you read the verse? “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that He always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.”

And here’s the thing: so many times I’m going through the desert in my own strength. God’s got the grace right there—all the water I need. Christ stored it up. He earned it for me on the cross of Calvary.

You see, the grace of God—it’s you serve Him by grace. Hebrews 12 talks about that, verse number 28: “And let us have grace whereby we may serve God.” So I can serve Him in my own strength and my own ability, and that’s pretty limited. Or I can serve Him by grace. See?

You remember the Beverly Hillbillies? I shouldn’t tell this. It’s not in my notes, but it just popped in my mind. Remember the Beverly Hillbillies, and they had that old, you know, car. And then they were riding sometimes, granted, was on top on the, on the, in a rocking chair with a shotgun, you know, that old, you remember, how many you know that? Oh, my, yeah, and he had kind of put, put it along. One time, one of the episodes, they ran out of gas. And so Granny always secretly had a jug, you know. And they said, “Well, Granny’s jug will probably work.” Man, they put that jug, they gas came, man, those tires spun off, whoa, miss. Probably poor illustration there. But Jesus got the grace you need.

Paul said, remember what Paul said with the Corinthians? He said, “I am what I am by my own strength and talent.” Is that what he said? He said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Now look, here’s the key of the Christian life: is me and you learning to tap into and living by and relying on the grace that God has available.

By the way, look over if you have, it’s in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Look at this thing about Paul when he said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” Look over the thing. It’s interesting. First Corinthians 15. Look at verse number 10 of God’s word.

He says there, he says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain.” In other words, he’s saying, “I drank from the canteen.” You understand? I used the grace that Jesus had available for me. Then he goes on. He says, “But I labored more abundantly than they all.” I’m not talking about sitting around doing nothing, twiddling your thumbs. I’m talking about that. But I’m talking about you don’t do what you do in your own power. You do what you do by the grace of God.

Notice how to finish. He said, “But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” You see, the end result of me saying, “Boy, I’m strong and I’m educated. I know what I’m doing. I got it all together.” The end of that is I, I, I, I, I, fried. But the end result of this over here, you know, Paul said, “Yes, I labored more abundantly.” Oh, and God blesses hard work, amen.

Well, I appreciate that one, yes, sir, and that one, amen. God blesses, amen, work, amen. Amen. Yeah, it does. But Paul wanted to clarify, he wasn’t getting proud. He said, “But it was the grace of God.” That’s how I worked. That’s how I labored so abundantly. And the end result of working by the grace of God is not, “Look at me,” it’s “Praise the Lord! What is this over there?” He says, “But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory.” And the end result, you gain knowledge about how giving and how gracious He is if you serve Him by grace.

We have two zero-degree lawnmowers at our church. We got in newer, we bought a couple years ago. We have an old one we’ve had for a while. And years ago, one of our men at church was cutting the grass with our older lawnmower. The older lawnmower has got two gas tanks, one on each side, and got left tank and right tank. Then it’s got a little lever back here. You can flip it, and it’ll say left or right, you know. And one of our men was cutting grass with an older lawnmower.

And he was getting used to the zero degree. How many have you ever driven a zero-degree lawnmower? How many ever popped a wheelie with a zero-degree lawnmower? Amen. How many ever you did donuts with a zero-degree lawnmower? Amen? Yeah, they’re fun. Anyway, he was getting used to all that. And he came along one of our buses or one of our older buses. And those gas tanks in the back of that old one, like our new one, is made of plastic. It’s strong plastic, but it’s plastic. And that one tank just scraped against the bumper. And that bumper had a little sharp edge right there, and on the top part of that tank, it gashed it. I mean, it just cut. It’s a whole lot more out there. One of the tanks, it used to be Brother Richards, and Brother Rich is mad at us now because we’re not taking care of his old mower. But anyway, sure enough, that one tank has got a gash in the top of that tank.

So here’s what we do: that tank over there, if you fill it up with gas, as it’s vibrating, that motor’s running, it’ll leak out that gas. So we’ll just keep a little bit of gas over there. Now, on the other side, we’d keep that full, we’d fill that up, and we’d always keep that lever over there on the right tank.

Now, here’s what I’m saying: I’m so prone to try to do it myself. See, try to get the job done myself of my own strength. And sometimes accidentally, someone flips that lever over where we’re running from this gas tank over here where it’s almost about out all the time. And when I’m running in my own power, my own strength, I’m always running on empty.

But God said, look, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you’re always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” And He’s saying, look, Christians, my people, I want you to put the lever over the thing. And Jesus has that tank full of the gas you need. For everything you’re faced in life, He’s got the grace available for you.

And so many Christians, we’re running through life on this tank—we’re on empty—when Christ has got stored up what we need.

Now, look, when Christ went to the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago, He was purchasing our salvation. Is that true or not? Yes, He was. But not only was it purchasing—I have a hard time with that word right there, you know, purchasing. Adam, we’re going to speak in tongues pretty soon if we keep it up going around here, you know. But anyway, Christ was purchasing our salvation, but not only that: He was purchasing the grace you need. What’s today? For June 9, 2019. He was purchasing the grace you need for June 10th, 2019. He was purchasing the grace you need for June 11th and 12th. All the grace you’ll ever need, Jesus was purchasing. That’s how God is able to make all grace abound toward you.

You see, He’s God. He’s not bound by time. He knows the end. He knows the end from the beginning. Isaiah says He inhabits eternity. You say, “He can go into tomorrow.” Yes, He can go into tomorrow. He’s already there. He’s in tomorrow. He’s in today. He’s in the past all at one time. He inhabits eternity.

And He knew what you would be facing even during tough times. So all the grace you’ll ever need, Jesus was purchasing that. That’s why Paul, when he said, “Lord, would You take this thorn in the flesh away?” God said, “No, no, My grace is”—what’s the next word?—“sufficient for me.” Because Jesus knew it, Paul needed it, and He stored it up. Everything you need. So I don’t have to face tomorrow in fear. I can face tomorrow in faith, not because of what I am, but because He has the grace available.

You ever heard of someone on these diet programs where they send them the food for a week or even longer? And they already got the food for Monday and Tuesday. That had to be a pretty big truck for me, amen, you know. I mean, it has to be a whole lot of ice cream. And it’s all prepared, ready to go, what you need. That’s what Jesus was doing.

And for you to be the godly man God wants you to be, He has your grace available. For you to be the lady, the godly lady God wants you to be, He has your grace available. God knows His will for your life and all the things He would like for you to do.

It’s been a blessing. Destiny’s been with us today. And I don’t know, but we’ll say next year when Destiny goes to school, what grade will you be in next year, Destiny? Tenth grade. Man, everybody’s making me feel old here lately. I’ll tell you what, let’s roll with him. But maybe there’s a girl at Destiny’s school in 10th grade, Summer '19, that God knows Destiny to tell about Jesus and lead that girl to the Lord. Destiny says, “Man, I can’t do that. I’m too nervous. What in the world? How am I going to do that?” God’s will for Destiny: Jesus went on the cross, He purchased the grace that Destiny needs to be able to witness to that girl. Everything God wants you to do, Jesus earned the grace you need to do it.

And that’s why I’m saying, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.”

Bryson is going to go into the military, I believe, to the Marines, August, he’s going in. And God’s will for Bryson is to be—let me see here—he’s to be a millionaire and he’s to play the lottery with these certain numbers. I’m joking. We’re not into lottery. I’m joking, of course, fellow. But God’s—I do know God’s will for Bryson is for Bryson to be a good, godly testimony in the military. That’s tough to do. But that’s God’s will for Bryson. God has the grace stored up for Bryson to be it and to do it.

Now, Bryson can flip the tank over to the left and kind of draw from his own strength, and he’s going to run out pretty quick. Or he can say, “Hey, Lord, I’m going to draw from the grace You have available.” It’s a different way of living. It’s not living in our own strength. Paul said, “My sufficiency is not of myself; it’s of the Lord.” We’ll learn to tap into it. He’s got all you need: grace for every trial, every problem, grace to win when you are tempted.

Well, we’re tempted, maybe with our besetting sin. And when we say, “Well, I don’t have the strength to make it through that,” you’re right. But Christ has got the strength available for you to make it through that. It’s called His grace. And that’s why He says, “Hey, temptation, there are no temptations technically but such as is common to man. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with that temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” What’s that? Grace. It’s always there.

Now, here’s an important thing about grace. I don’t know if I have exactly what all the Lord wants, but maybe even at the funeral, I pray a little bit about it. Maybe I’ll mention this at the funeral. I don’t know. But here’s the thing: when we go through a tough time, we’re so tempted not to have our eyes or our mind on the grace that God has available, but on all the problems.

Now, remember that verse over there in Hebrews. He said, “Let us therefore come boldly”—Hebrews 5—“see, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, watch it, that we may obtain mercy and what’s the next word?” And find grace. Now, here’s that: you obtain mercy, but you’ve got to find grace.

Wednesday night, I didn’t have my glasses on me, and I—anymore I’m getting to the point, it’s a shame—and I’m getting to the point where I, if there’s a song, I really don’t know the words, I have to get my glasses out. Shame. I tell you what. Anyway, Wednesday night, and I started looking for glasses. And praise the Lord, I found them.

Look, here’s my thing. He says you obtain mercy and find grace. You got to look for it. And so often when we’re in a time of temptation, we’re in time of trials, all we see is the bad around us. And God said, “Look, I’ve got the grace available for you, but you have to look for it. You find it.” Grace is always going to be there. We’re so often, so many Christians, we find them in the dead, and they have the canteen of grace on their side. It’s always available. Always available.

When I’m not what I ought to be, what God wants me to be, it’s because I’m not relying on His grace. Did you notice that? That He may have abounded to every good work. Pretty powerful. Every good work.

How can I be the Christian I ought to be at home? Maybe one of the toughest places, but the most important place to be the Christian. You ought to be at home. How can it be that? By the grace of God. He’s got what you need.

Jesus paid for all the grace you’ll ever need. It’s all available for you. It’s why Jesus, one of the last things on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” He was saying, “I’ve earned the grace you need. So now you can go out and be the Christian I want you to be—not by your own strength, but by the grace I purchased for you.”

It’s a wonderful way of living. So much happier and freer and funner and not filled with fear. Rely on the grace of God. That’s when you get at the point where Paul said, “I can do all things.” What’s the next thing? “Through Christ who strengthens me.” Yeah, because of the grace. And what a—such a better way? “I can do all things.”

That’s why Jesus said, “I came to give life and life more”—kind of reminds you of that—“that you abound to every good work.” He came to give His life more abundant through grace.

I love this illustration, Bible illustration: Joseph. Remember in the Old Testament? Joseph is a great picture of Jesus Christ. He’s the type of them and would call them of Jesus Christ. And wonderful how Joseph resembles Jesus. He was loved by his father. Jesus, of course, loved by the Father. He was sold. Joseph sold for 20 pieces of silver; Christ for 30 pieces. Now, I won’t get all the disparities. He lived and died in a foreign land. Jesus left heaven, came down and lived on this earth for 33 years and shed His blood in a foreign land. He was lied about—Jesus was. Joseph was lied about, falsely accused, and on trial and falsely condemned. Joseph was; Jesus was too. So many similarities.

Joseph, he paid—oh, remember the seven good years? Joseph was storing up all that grain. And then the seven lean years his family came over, and Joseph provided for them. So many pictures in Christ left heaven, came down here on the earth and purchased our salvation. I like this one here: He died in a foreign country, Joseph. Remember later on they dug up his bones and said, “Hey, now when you go back, take my bones back.” Hey, Christ, He’s not buried down here in this foreign country, amen? So many similarities.

But here’s the thing I like: Joseph, he was storing up grains of corn, wheat. I don’t know. I picture sometimes they had silos all over Egypt. Can you imagine silos? You ever go out in the country and see these big silos, you know, in these farms? And all these silos, huge silos, and they just had it stored up with all this food. And so these seven lean years, and his family comes, and Joseph kind of taps into those silos and he said, “Give him some food.”

Did you notice? Watch as Joseph tested his brothers: he never let them pay for it. He’s always—always made sure somehow he got the money back to them. They never paid for it. He gave it to them. Now, that’s a wonderful picture of Jesus. When He came down, lived on this earth, and He was storing up all the grace Craig Busho needs, all the grace Ginny Fontaine needs, all the grace Alan Johnson needs. And He was storing all—and He’s got silos of grace stored up.

That’s why it says over there, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work.” Because Jesus has got that stored up.

So now, Paul has all the grace I need. Jesus stored it up. And I became part of His family when I got saved. Now I can come in all the grace I need for every day. It’s available. Then I can abound to every good work.

And it’s a sad thing. Sometimes I’m over here wondering in the desert, “Well, I don’t have what I need. I can’t make it.” And all this pity party all… And the honest truth is, if I were to look in the canteen of grace, all but that He’s there.

You heard me tell the story about the man years ago. He had to cross over the river, no bridge, in wintertime. It froze over. He didn’t know how solid it was or wasn’t. He was worried about crossing over the river. So he thought, “Man, if I just walk across, it may break. I might fall.” So he said, “I tell you what, instead of me just walking across,” he said, “if I get down, he said, I can kind of spread the weight out on all fours instead of two, you know.”

So this guy, he got down on his hands and knees, and he’s crawling across the river on the ice, scared to death. And as this guy is on all fours, he’s just crawling. As he’s doing that, he heard some noise years ago, and it was a guy; he was doing several things. One thing he was just singing. I don’t know what he’d say, and just thinking, ah, you know, just singing away. And he was on a sled. Horses were pulling it. And his sled was full of coal, back in the day when they used coal to burn their fireplaces and whatnot. And this fellow’s crawling on ice, and all of a sudden he sees this fellow down the river crossing over.

I’m talking him—horses weigh a lot, you know. Miss Cotor could probably tell us more exactly, 800 pounds or whatever, I don’t know. You know, and then sleds weigh a lot, and the coal weighs a lot. And he’s just sliding across the ice, just singing away! And this guy’s crawling. And I’m like that sometimes in my Christian life: “Can I make it? Am I going to make it through the day? Do I have what I need?” And God says, “I got so much grace. Won’t you just enjoy the ride? I got all the grace you’ll ever need.”

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that He always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.” What’s sad thing? I’m wondering in the desert; I’ve got the grace available.

Would you bow your head? Eyes are closed. You say, “Preacher, you know God spoke to my heart. I’m living in fear now. I need to just learn to drink freely from the canteen—that’s grace. I realize tonight I’ll never drink it all up; it’s available. All I’ll ever need is there.”

God spoke to my heart. I need to just drink freely from His canteen of grace. God spoke to my heart about that. That’s you? Not, you slip your hand up, preacher. That’s me right there. That’s me too. Me too. It’s available. It’s available. Thank you. Thank you so very, very much for letting the Lord work in your heart. Thank you for that.

You’re here tonight, you said, “Preacher, I’m too self-reliant. I look at myself and how many times I’m trusting in Paul.” And I said, “No, Paul, if you’re going to grow, you’re growing in grace.” You say, “Preacher, God spoke to my heart. I want to stop this relying on myself and start relying on Jesus and the grace He has available.” God spoke to my heart. I want to be more reliant on Christ than on myself. That’s you? Not slip in it in it. That’s me. That’s me. Oh, God bless you. Me too. Me too. It’s amazing. He’s got it available. All you need. We’ll rely on Him. What a wonderful thing.

Hey, Christians tonight, invitation: let’s just come and thank Him. Thank You for all the grace that’s got available. The invitation tonight, let’s come just drink from the canteen. So, Lord, I’m excited about tomorrow relying on Your grace and the rest of my life to be what You want me to be. Would you let Him know that tonight? Would you let Him know that?

Let’s all stand, if you would, please. We’re going to have a word of prayer. And we’re going to sing 297, “Pass Me an Old, Savior.” And let’s just come draw from the grace. All the grace you need is available. Let’s just come drink from it tonight. Let’s pray, and would you come?

Father, thank You in Your love and Your wisdom. Your Son, You stored up all the grace we need. Father, help us tonight just to drink, just to enjoy Your grace. Father, help us to get our eyes off ourselves, our eyes on You. Help us to live that life more abundantly through the grace that’s available. Well, thank You what You do, Lord Jesus, and we pray. Amen.

Original File: Abounding Grace - Sunday Evening Service 6919