How Not to Worry
Key Passage: 2 Corinthians 12:9
Date: June 7, 2024
Turn your Bibles, if you would, to 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12. Second Corinthians chapter number 12.
We are going to cover familiar territory as far as this context. I am not really going to talk about the context today. We recently did so and covered that somewhat in depth. So we are just going to go for four words this morning. Preaching sometimes will lift a truth or a verse out.
That does not do scripture injustice now. If it twists it, that is wrong. It must be able to fit back in with the rest of the Bible. But preaching often does that. And you focus, you kind of lift the truth out, you just shine all the lights you can on that one truth. That is what we are going to do today. Really over four words, four words. And if your Bibles have a red-letter edition, if Jesus said it, is what was the red letter? You know, I have that too in my Bible.
Of all God’s word, but maybe a special emphasis on the red letters. And this part is interesting. In Corinthians, you will find some words in red here that will read. But we are not really going for the context today. We are just going to lift that one truth up, four words. And I promise you, we will not do it injustice with the rest of the Bible, taking it out of context as far as twisting it.
But we are going to focus on those four words this morning, all right? And really, if you get the truth, it will help you not to worry. I think if we are all honest, we battle this thing of worrying. Anybody out there, you battle this thing of worrying? Boy, my hand and a half is up on that.
If I had 10 fingers, I would put them all up, you know. And we all battle this. And this thing, just I am hoping and praying, and it will be a help. I really do not have to worry. And we really do not. And this is a great truth to help us realize, you do not have to worry. I have to worry. And we are prone to it, but I hope this will help as far as us. Really, you do not have to worry.
And the title really would be this for the internet: How Not to Worry. How Not to Worry. And 2 Corinthians chapter number 12. And would you please stand as we will read God’s word together, 2 Corinthians 12. And verse number 9 is what we are going to focus on. Four words out of verse number 9.
By the way, I appreciate these young men and young ladies on the front row. Me and them got their Bibles out. That is pretty awesome. And they have been taking notes sometime. That is just awesome. I am proud of them for that. That is just a great, great thing. Second Corinthians 12, look in verse number nine. And he said unto me—now he will start the red letters—“My grace is sufficient.” That is what we will focus on, those four words. “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Let me focus on that. Not too long ago, “Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Those four words are just going to take those four words: My grace is sufficient. Would you say those four words aloud with me? Here we go:
“My grace is sufficient.” One more time, please. “My grace is sufficient.” Ten more times, please? No. Let us pray, if you would, ask God to work at our hearts. Father, Lord, we come. I cannot do a proper job, Lord, without You and Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, we yield to You.
And Lord, I pray that You would take this great truth. Lord, many of these people have heard it many times, but Lord, You can make it real and fresh to us. Lord, would You do so? Father, help me to be empowered not by me, but by You, and Holy Spirit, by Your power. And You take it home to the heart of these people. And we will thank You, Lord, for what You do. Father, we are asking for these things in the name of Jesus. We pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
The first word we are going to look at is the word grace. “My grace is sufficient.” That is the heart of the matter. I do not think you really understand what we are talking about. Let me cover that. Some of you have heard these things. But grace, you say, what is grace? Is it when a sinner comes, a sinful person that deserves to die and go to hell, and they ask the Lord for mercy and grace? And the blood of Jesus Christ covers their sins and their destiny is changed from hell to heaven? Answer me out loud. Is that grace? Yes, that is grace. Is grace a day when you did not get up in time, you did not read your Bible, you did not pray, but God just seemed to be so good to you during that day? Is that grace? Yes.
Is grace the fact that as a born-again Christian, mercy, I miss hell, but I go to heaven forever? Is that grace of God? Yes. Is grace actually the strength that I got up this morning? I mean, when the alarm clock went off and I was on my cell phone, I picked it up and put it across the room while I wanted to, okay? I did reset it one time, I am going to be honest, you know. When I got up, what is the grace of God that I woke up this morning? Yes. You said, can it be all those things? Yes. Is it the grace of God that I have a wonderful wife and a wonderful daughter and a wonderful son? Praise the Lord, all my kids are in church trying to serve the Lord. I am thankful for that. Is that the grace of God? Yes, that is totally the grace of God, I promise. I messed up about a million times as a parent; you did too. Is it the grace of God that I have a nice truck to drive and a nice house to live in, and I live in the greatest country in the world? Is that the grace of God? Yes, all of it. You say, well, did not you earn some of those? Well, the best I can do, God says it is filthy rags.
I am—that is talking about lepers that would take it, and they would wipe off the sores. I mean, you know what lepers? They get sores all over the place, you know. And they start—leprosy starts from the extremities. I had leprosy on my finger and my thumb, you know. And it just sores, all the times on the tip of your nose, your ears, and it just kind of slowly eats it away. And those lepers would take, walk, and…
And they are supposed to cry and clean so you did not get around—kind of like COVID. I mean, they had social distancing back then, you know. And literally, sometimes they would have posts that had rags on it because they did not want them dripping. Because you know what happens when you get sores? It starts oozing out. And these posts would have rags on it, and they would go to a post and they could wipe that off so it would not drip before the next post. And many think when he says over there in Isaiah talking about the best you can do, really compared to God’s righteousness, is filthy rags. So before I think I have earned all the good things in my life, I better realize God said the best I can do. Wow.
So he began to comprehend really these good things I have in my life are by grace.
Grace is amazing. Probably my favorite subject in the Bible. It is misused often. We will talk about that tonight. But grace, I think the best definition I have ever heard is this. If you know it, say it out loud with me. Here we go: “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” So it is the riches of God. It is His blessings. But it is not at my expense. It is at Christ’s expense.
Now here is the thing. So, help me out, where do all good things come from? Right? James 1:17. I think it is one of Brother Marlin’s favorite verses. Would you say that first part of the verse, Brother Marlin? He is like, man, he has put me on the spot. Did you hear that? “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above.”
The Father likes. So all the good things I have in my life—I mention my wife, I mention my daughter, my son, my truck, especially when it is running, amen, that is always good, you know—the house, all these good things, we live in America, all these good things, they are from heaven. Now, they travel down this interstate from heaven into my life. How do I get all these good things in my life? They travel down from heaven down this interstate into Husset’s life, all right? And all this interstate, sometimes I picture like they are semis, and they are packed full of blessings for Husset.
What kind of blessing would you like, Jose? Can you think of a blessing you would like? She says, I cannot think right now. You put me on the spot. She, let us see here, she has got a little brother. And we will say a blessing is that your little brother never cries again. Would that be a blessing? She says that would be a miracle.
Okay, so let us say that is a blessing in her life. Well, it would come down this interstate in a semi, we are saying. And you know, these semis have got all the pictures on the side of the semis, and it would just have a big—it would just say grace. And it is traveling down. Every good thing you ever have in your life travels down this interstate. There are semis with “Grace Road” on the side of it. And the whole interstate is paved with the blood of Jesus Christ.
Every good thing you have in your life, it is grace. Sometimes we really narrow grace down. Grace is so big, it is so huge. It encompasses every good thing you have. Everything. It comes in millions of different forms. It is different for everybody. You might need grace for physical problems. As you get older, we all need that. Man, I need help with this, you know, with my need. Amen, Brother Frank. You know, whoever, whatever. I need help my heart, whatever it is. And that blessing you need for your physical problem is grace. It comes in so many different forms. You may say, well, I just need help to be the man or the lady I believe God wants it to be; it is called grace.
In fact, in Hebrews, he says we serve Him by grace. Apostle Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” You begin to get empowered by grace. And you can be empowered by grace. So I need help to overcome this sin in my life. Sin is very hard to overcome. Maybe you battle—you battle just a critical mind, being critical. And it is very tough. All of us battle these things. You say, how can I overcome this thing in my life? Grace.
There are so many different forms. It will come into a million different packages. But if you check it out, made by—on the bottom of it—it is not made in Mexico. It is not made in China. You can say amen right there. It is made by the grace of God. And all these different things you need, they are made by the grace of God. It is so important that you understand that.
The grace of God is wonderful. When you begin to grasp that a little bit, it adds so much. Brother Mike Arnold’s mom passed this week, and she is in heaven. Brother Mike has been so good about, man, she is at home. She is better off than we are, and he is right. And he said this many times, he said, man, she beat his home, and he is right. And I went to the funeral on Friday. I went to preach it, but I went to the funeral on Friday. And we were sitting in there, you know, sometimes funeral homes are just, you know, a little bit peaceful sometimes. And I came in, I was sitting in one of the chairs, and they were just playing just old hymns a lot. I really enjoyed that, and just musical. And then the family came in and succeeded them, all that, and then they began to play some songs. I do not know who it was that was singing it, but they did a good job. By the way, they did a good job to the PA people. You can really hear the words very clear. You did not have to strain to understand the words. And I appreciate when our PA works hard at that. We have a piano that is going to be super in the new auditorium, but it is just like on the borderline of being too big for the auditorium. And I appreciate it when our PA men work at turning the words up so you can understand the words. You know, the contemporary crowd, they put the music up, you cannot understand the words, you know. And man, I was sitting there and you could just hear the words so clear.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” and it is just—I have not felt this in a while. And I tell you what, I was just sitting there and the music came on. I am not sure what happened, but it just seemed like—I do not know if it happened to them, it happened to me—it seemed like it came across that little congregation there, and everybody just—nobody told us—just started singing. Just you could hear like singing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”
My mind began to drift back to the writer of that hymn, John Newton. John Newton, his mom died. She was a godly lady, but she died when he was seven years old, and he became just a rowdy, disobedient, rebellious boy, very defiant. His dad was a sailor. He was captain, and he began to go out on the ocean with his dad pretty young. And boy, all the cursing and all the—he picked up all the bad habits. He was just a very defiant young boy. He got a job when he was a young teenager, but he got fired because he was just so—just his attitude was awful. He did not want to listen to anybody. He got fired from his job, just a teenage boy. His life, they said, just went that way.
And just a sinful man, he joined the Navy. He said, well, maybe the military could do something with him, you know, and joined the Navy. He was so rebellious in the Navy that eventually he deserted and left the Navy. Boy, the Navy, man, you go AWOL; they go after you, you know. And they called him a young man just so rebellious. Nobody could do anything with him. They say they put him in irons. They put him like in handcuffs, and they flogged him. I mean, back in the day, they would just take him—they would just beat him like a whip. They flogged him, such a rebellious person. After that, he just did not want to do anything. And finally, he talked some of them in the Navy to let him out. They said, “We do not want this boy anymore.” And they let him go out, and he began to work for slave traders. He knew the ocean.
And they got to work for a company. They had some lemon trees on this—I think it was Northwest Africa. I might not remember that right—but a little island. And he would work that, and they would use slaves, and he became a slave trader and all that. And he sunk so low, the owner of the company and his mistress/wife, kind of like the princes of the island. They did not like him, but they treated him like dirt. It came to one point he had to beg for food. He was so low. You talk about messed up.
And finally, he got out of that company, got a little better company. He was on a boat, his ship one time. It was called The Greyhound. And he was reading a Christian book. God was using that book in his life, The Imitation of Christ. He was reading that book, and he was sailing in that ship, and a major storm came up. And that book had a line in there about, “We do not know how long we are going to live,” and I am misquoting that, but we are just life short. And in a storm, it was a bad storm, a good chance that we are going to die. He could not get past that little line: Now this life is short, we are going to die. What are you going to do when you die? It was in that storm. A messed-up man, could not hold a job down, had to beg for food at one point, was treated like a slave at one point, been kicked out of the Navy, basically, all that messed-up life. And yet that old wretched man—Jesus, and Jesus saved him.
Eventually, eventually, he became a preacher in England. And my mind was going back to that. He is the man that wrote those words: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind, but now I see.”
Oh, friend, when you understand grace, it is the most wonderful truth. I love it. It is for saving grace, but it is for living grace. It is for serving grace. It is for everything in your life. It is grace. He has got what you need through grace.
So we are getting these four words. He says, say it out loud with me. There are four words. Here we go: “My grace is sufficient.”
Now we have grace. Let us go to this next word if you would. What is the very first word? What is it? It is His grace. I look at my resources, and they are not much. The devil always tries to get you looking at what you are. He is always about that. And he says, well, you cannot—you cannot be a good husband. You cannot win over this sin. You cannot accomplish this. You cannot be a prayer warrior. And he is always about you, you, you, you, you, know, he is right.
And he is getting you messed up. This is what the world does. Here is what the world tries to do. It tries to make us think we are all that. Many times the self-help—you are all this. The God within you, they will say it all these things. I do not have a problem with that, but it is just all about us. No, no, no, no. This old boy can do nothing.
But here is the good part. I do not have to have all the resources in me. It is not my grace. It is His. His grace. Can you be whatever God wants you to be? Yes, because of what you are? No, but because what? His grace is. It is His grace. His grace can empower you. His grace can give you what you need. His grace—you can serve God by His grace. It is all about Him. His grace. You know, we do not live by our own faith. We live by His faith. So, well, I have great faith. Well, God gave it to you, friend.
He said, well, I am gifted, one of the gifts. Well, all the gifts of the Spirit of God are by grace. Romans tells us that. He said, well, my faith—well, what is this over there in Galatians 2:20? “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Well, it is one of the fruit, the ninefold fruit of the Spirit: faith. I am just saying the grace of God can give you every resource you need. So do not get stuck looking at yourself. That always ends in defeat or pride. Always does. Here is the thing about it: It is His grace.
And here is what He did. Now listen to me, here is what He did. Think about this. Remember, He inhabits eternity. So way back in eternity past, He could travel to what is today. Today is August—oh, I am ahead of point—July the 10th, 2022. So way back, we will say 4,000 BC, somewhere along when He created the earth, He could travel 6,000 years ahead in time, or actually He did not have it at all at one time; He is God, but He is traveling. And He looks at this day, and He says, well, Brother Ben Holt’s dad has been very sick, and Brother Ben is going to need some grace today. And now when Jesus died on the cross, He gave, or He stored up, He earned the grace that Brother Ben needs today.
Way back, way back in eternity past, He knew what was going to happen. Oh, last week, a week before, Brother Mark had heart trouble. And He knew when Brother Mark—he drove himself to the ER. And his family was complaining a little bit. Brother Mark, I am telling you a little bit too much. Brother Mark likes his vehicles without scratches on them. Anybody know what I am talking about? So he does not park where everybody else parks. He parks on the outside of the parking lot. And they were a little bit—I am sorry, brother—there were a little bit in the hospital room complaining, yeah, you know where he parked. He parked way out, and he walked himself into the ER when he had a hard chest pain, you know. Blood pressure was sky high, you know, because he was worried about somebody else scratching his car. Brother Richard is crashing his car, you know.
But look, here is what I am getting at: way back, God knew that day would happen. And Jesus earned all the grace that Brother Mark needed on that day. For every single day of your life, He knows what is going to happen. And He has already earned the grace you will need for that day. And you will never have a day that does not have the grace earned available that you need for that day.
There are two keys, and I am getting off the subject, two keys about getting—I would not say earn it, that would not be right—about receiving it. One is humility. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And faith. “We have access to this grace wherein we stand by faith.” Romans 5:2 says it. But He has all the grace you need. He has it available for you. That is why the Bible says, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
Grace. How many have ever heard of Corrie Ten Boom? How many have ever read the book, The Hiding Place? You read the book, A Hiding Place? You saw the movie, The Hiding Place? I do not recommend many movies. I would recommend that movie; it is a great movie. And I do not know where you can find it. I am sure you can find it on Amazon or something. It is a great, great movie. But Corrie Ten Boom—her family back in World War II, the Nazis were coming into Holland, and her dad owned a clock store and some jewelry. He repaired jewelry, especially clocks, and they had a little bit of room. And of course, the Nazis were coming and killing the Jewish people or taking the Jewish people off to concentration camps and killing them. Many times killed six million of them, by the way. Many times I leave that out of history books today, but that is a very true fact.
And I know many people that have been over to Germany to the concentration camps where they would take them in there and just gas them and kill them by the thousands, burned their bodies or buried their bodies. So they were trying to save the Jewish people, and they were hiding them in their little clock store. In fact, they had made fake rooms and built fake walls where they could rush them in there when the soldiers would come in there, they could hide them in there and tell them, “Be quiet,” you know, and they would pack them out in there. But finally, one day the Germans came, and they had got signs: “Hey, somebody is hiding Jewish people in this town,” and there is a little underground railroad, you know, traveling in and out, and somebody is taking care of it. And so they called them, and they took them to concentration camps. Corrie Ten Boom writes about it all. Her dad was killed. Her sister eventually was killed. And for some reason, God let Corrie Ten Boom live through that. It is amazing how she tells how God just took care of her and enabled her to keep her sanity going through all that.
Here is an amazing story. I have told their story. We are going to talk a little bit later on about Corrie Ten Boom’s story never told here. But here are amazing things. So they were in this concentration camp, like a prison camp. And Corrie would say my sister was, by many people’s terms, nicer looking than me. And she said the soldiers would come in sometimes and take some of the women out and do wicked, wicked things with them. It is one thing if they do it to you, but she said they would come in and they take my sister out, and you know what they were doing. She said, I would remember those guards, those wicked, sinful guards, and they would take my sister out and violate her. Just—can you imagine how you would feel? They would take somebody she loved so much, very close to her sister, and just do wicked things. And she had to live through that. Of course, eventually her sister died.
The war was all over. She wrote the book. God used her to write the book, and she was in Europe in different churches giving testimonies about what all happened. She was giving testimonies how God had taken care of it and all that those things happened. And she said, “I could not believe it.” I looked, and her heart just sank. She said, walked in those back doors was one of those very guards that took her sister out. She could not believe it. She was thinking, how can I give a testimony about God, and I see this man come in the back door? And of course, all those feelings, all those thoughts come up, and what all that wicked man had done to my sister. And she just—she said, how can she just try to get through it? And after it is all over, people, you know, want to talk to her and different things. And there was a little line to see her. And that man got in the line. And she thought, oh, no. I cannot talk to him. I cannot. There is nothing in me. I do not have the resources in me to forgive that man. And she did not. Of course, inside, she had that battle going on. Lord, please do not let him come. I cannot handle this right now.
And it seemed as if the Lord said, “Hey, Corrie, all you have to do is lift your hand to shake his hand.” That is all you have to do. And she said, “Lord, I cannot even do that.” And there was a battle going on. She said, “Lord, I cannot shake that man,” and “I cannot do that.” And the man came. Corrie said, I did not have it inside me. She did not have it inside of her. But she said, I just tried to raise my hand. And when she just tried to raise her hand, she said, I was amazed how God filled my heart with love and forgiveness for that wicked man. She thought about how messed up of a man he must be to do such wicked things. He must have been so messed up. Here is what I am getting at, friend: She did not have it in her. Because it is not your and my grace, it is His—my grace. And it has the grace you need for every single day. My grace. Everything you need, He has got it stored up. My grace.
Now let us get two more words. We have to get two more. We talked about the first two words, right? Help me out. Would you say the four words? Here we go: “My grace is sufficient.” Let us talk about that. My grace. What is the next word? It is. It did not say my grace has been. Now that would have been true, but that is not what it said. It does not even say my grace will be. It is present tense. It is right there. Not ahead of time. It is right there.
Two preachers were traveling in a plane, and they got through real bad turbulence and all that. One of the preachers was scared to death. He thought he was going to die. He was scared to death. Another preacher said, “What is wrong with you? You are scared to death.” He said, “You sure have a lot of faith.” He said, “I do not have a lot of faith. I just knew we were not going to die.” He said, “How did you know? Where I am going to die?” Because they always said God is going to give you dying grace one day. And I did not have the grace, so I knew we were not dying today.
That is always present tense. Here is where the word comes in. Here is where the word—all right, let us say, Brother Steve Page told me a joke this morning. See if I can remember it. He just told it right before service. He said a guy turned the fountain on, the bathtub, and it would not turn off, would not turn off, you know, and so he called the plumber and said, “You have got to get over here, quick. It is an emergency. I cannot shut this thing off. You know, got to get here quick.” And the plumber wisely said, “Hey, bud, pull the plug. You will be all right. Just let it drain,” you know. But we will say that happens with Steve Page, and he had not pulled the plug. And we will say he needed 10 measures of grace. All right, I am just making this up as I go, because it was not funny the same way. And here is the thing: A week ahead of time, Steve Page worries about these things because he does not have 10 measures of grace because he does not need them. And see, we always look at our problems, “Lord, I do not know if I can handle that.” Well, you probably cannot handle that at the moment because you do not have the grace at that moment because you do not need the grace at that moment. It is always “My grace is.” He does not give it to you way ahead of time. But you can bank on it when you need it. It is always our “My grace is.” He is a very present help in time of trouble. It is always in the nick of time, if you will. He is never early, never late. It is always on time.
Now here is the thing. You are tempted to worry. You said, well, if I got cancer, I could not handle it. Well, you probably could not right now. But if you got cancer, God would give you the grace where you could handle it. So we are always—by the way, you realize the vast majority of things we worry about never happen? Y’all do not say amen there. But if they do, if they were to happen, God would give you the grace to handle that.
By the way, God does give dying grace. He does give that. I love him. Old preacher here, Brother Howes, he said, I went to the hospital one time, and he visited a sweet, older saint of a lady, and she was very, very sick, and she coughed. She kept coughing when he was there, and she coughed up some blood. Brother Howes was like, whoa, man. And he said, he probably should not, but he said, “Is that blood?” And she said, “Well, it sure ain’t chewing tobacco.” Now, she knew when she was about to die, but God was giving her dying grace.
Remember the Howes story? He said with a young preacher—one of the first times he was supposed to go where somebody is about to die. And he said, man, in the middle of the night, he was scared and nervous. The preacher has got to have all these words of advice. And so he got up, put a suit on, put his tie on, ready to go, and brought his big Bible. “Man, I have got to have the words to say to this old dear saint dying.” And it is an old farmhouse. You know all those old farmhouses back in the day, they just had one room or maybe a side room here, there, but just basically one big room, you know. Pop-belly stove in there, you know, in that one room. And he said he walked in there, and the lady was in bed in that one room. There are people gathered around her bed. And she said, “Come on in, Brother Howes, about to go home. They are singing me home. Come on, sing with everybody else. Y’all sing me home as I go to heaven.” Brother Howes was like, “Wow.” It is called dying grace. It is a real thing. “My grace is.” You say, “I need that today.” Well, you are not dying today. When that day comes, “My grace is sufficient.”
Remember Corrie Ten Boom we just talked about just a minute ago? Remember her? Someone said, “Well, how did you—I do not think I have that grace.” And she said, “Well, I did not either until I needed it.”
She said it is kind of like this. She said, when I was a little girl, man, my dad would always go to Amsterdam, and we would get on a train, and he would go and get different parts for clocks and all that. And she said my dad would purchase the tickets for us to board the train, but she said he would never give me the ticket ahead of time. He would always hold on to the ticket because he knew if I held on to his little girl, I am going to lose that ticket. And we would buy the ticket, but he would never give it to her until he would see that train come in. They are going to get on. They would see that light and know that was our train. We are just walking up there, and he would give me the ticket. That is where God is with His grace. Like, “Lord, I want it way down.” God said, “No, when the train comes in, I will have the ticket for you.” “My grace is.”
Now let us get that last word, that last word, last thing. We are going to go home and eat fried chicken at somebody’s house. Who has got fried chicken? Anybody? I will say it. We are all going to your house. Give us your address. We are all going there. We are there. Amen. All right, let us get these four words. Here we go. Say it one more time with me, if you are just the four. Here we go: “My grace is…”
Maybe just if you put it in Tennessee vernacular, it is always enough.
It is always enough. No matter what the trial, trial, no matter what the trouble, you say, “Nobody knows about what I am going through.” They might not, but His grace is enough. It is always enough. Always enough. “My grace is sufficient.”
Well, I do not have it in me. No, you do not. You do not, but it is His grace. But it is sufficient. Paul. Now let us just for a second here talk about Apostle Paul in the Bible. How many would say, if you put the five greatest Christians that you have heard of, whatever, how many would put Paul within the five first ten best Christians? I probably would. Ten, the top ten greatest Christians, Paul? Everybody shaking their head, yes. Just a great Christian. Paul, he really—the apostles at that point had kind of just focused in right around Israel, a little bit. They spread out some, but not beyond that. And Paul really took the gospel and he spread it farther and eventually over into Europe, what is Europe now. And most of our ancestors go back to Europe, most, not all, but most. So really in some ways we owe a great debt to Paul because he spread the gospel to our great, great, great grandfather, whatever, you know, and sometimes that is what is passed down to us. Paul, great, great Christian. They will debate about how many churches he started, 13, maybe on the low end, 27 on the high end, you know, all—just God used him greatly. God used Paul to pen—God is the author of His word—but he penned 13, many think, 14, I tend to think, of the New Testament books. The New Testament only has 27. Thank you, Brother Frank. It only has 27 books in it. And so if he wrote 14, he penned the majority of the New Testament books. It is a great Christian, Paul.
Now, now here is the thing. You say, where did Paul get saved at? Help me out. Somebody, where did Paul get saved at? On the road to Damascus, you are right. You are in Acts 9. You are right. But can I say before that, something was happening, something was happening at that moment. Because remember when he got saved, remember the bright light and Jesus was there, and he said, “It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.” So there was already conviction going on in Paul’s heart, and he was kicking against it. And I listened to it. Someone’s already going on. Now that is the point. By the way, it is interesting how the Bible says you are born again. Well, typically they carry that baby for nine months, but there is a moment. By the way, there are people that say, well, that is getting saved. An old friend, you get born—you have passed from death unto life. There is a process you go through when God is drawing you, but man, you are saved. It is not, “I am working on trying to be good enough.” No, you are born again. You are saved for it. But there was a moment when Paul was saved, but God had been working on him. Now, I tend to think a lot of that started way back when Paul was—he was very much a part of the persecution of the church. At the very beginning, there was this deacon named Stephen. Stephen was a great deacon. We have great deacons here. But Stephen…
He was preaching the gospel. He was out solely, and nobody could stop him. Man, he is going everywhere spreading the gospel. And these religious people got mad at him, and they killed Stephen. They murdered him. And here is the thing. When they killed Stephen, they took these stones, they stoned him. I mean, they took big old—big old—Miss Wanda, I am not going to break this, I promise. But they took big old stones. I have to have something, though, you know. Do not worry. God’s grace is going to have you through this evening. I am teasing you. It took big old stones, and man, they just pelted a guy, and they would kill a guy like that.
And they stoned Stephen. And when they were doing that, oh, Paul was there. And Paul said, “Yeah, get him, get him. Give me your coats. I will hold your coat while you kill him.” Paul was inciting it. He was an instigator. Man, he was just getting—“You are going to let this guy go against the religion of our fathers?” He was just inciting him. “Give me your coat. Now go get him.” And Paul was watching as this man was just—can you imagine just blood coming out all over—they would kill him. Stephen was dying. And as he was dying, and they were just a mob, just an angry mob coming against him, and they were killing Stephen.
And Stephen, he said, “Hey, I see Jesus. He is standing on the right hand of the Father.” Boy, that just—they began to like—went wild, like mad. And they began to kill him even more. And Stephen prayed this. He said, he prayed. He said, “Father, lay not this sin to their charge.” Wow. How on earth, when a guy is getting killed by these angry, wild people, how on earth can he remind you of Jesus?
That is really when I think God began to work in a great way in Saul’s life. He had to kick a lot against that. Years later—it has been years past for us—but years later, after all that, in England, a great preacher, years gone by, named Joseph Parker, and a great preacher. And he was in the—like the center of town, kind of like the courthouse square, if you will—and people were gathered from all over, and he was debating—they called him back in the day infidels. He was debating an infidel. It may be like an atheist or agnostic in our day in time—and he was debating him. And the preacher was debating him, and one of the scoffers said, “Man, I am going to get that preacher.” He said, “Hey, preacher! What did your grace do for Stephen when he was dying?” Many of you think, man, he got him, you know. But Joseph Parker said it was just like heaven came down and said, “Hey,” gave him an answer real quick. And he said, “God gave him the grace to pray for those sinners.” Friend, I am saying the worst of situations, it will be sufficient.
By the way, and God used that to see Paul and all that. I think Stephen has got so many rewards. How could he do that when he died? “My grace is sufficient.”
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please?
Our heads are bowed. As you say, preacher, I am going to try to use this truth as a weapon against worry. When I am tempted to worry, I am going to say that “My grace is sufficient.” When I am tempted just to worry and fret, let it affect me adversely, I am just going to—I am going to use this weapon in this battle I have with worry. And God spoke to my heart. I am going to do my best to use this truth. If that is you this morning, you flip your hand up. Preacher, I am going to do my best. God bless you. God bless you. Me too. Me too. God bless you, me too. I need to be reminded of it so much. “My grace is sufficient.” Thank you so very much. You put your hands down.
Maybe you hear this morning you say, preacher, I want to go beyond self-reliance and I want to live grace-reliant. Paul said, “My sufficiency is not of me, it is of God.” That is why he can say, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” When we—when I begin to live, not empowered by me, but empowered by grace, he says, “I can abound to every good work.” Preacher, I am going to start relying—living, not dependent on myself, but on the grace of God to be what I want to be for God. I am going to try my best to live grace-reliant living instead of self-reliant. God spoke to my heart about that. If that is you this morning, you slip your hand up. Preacher, I want to live grace-reliant instead of self-reliant. That is valuable. That is key. Oh, that is priceless. Because His grace is always sufficient. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for putting your hand up.
One more question, and we are done. You say, preacher, there has never come a time where I have accepted the grace of salvation. You have never come to a time when you realize your goodness will never get you to heaven, your works. I am going to rely on His grace. Friend, if you go to Him for salvation, it does not matter who or what you are. Grace is sufficient. I need to go to God for the grace of salvation. I need to get saved so I can go to heaven. God spoke to my heart. He is speaking to my heart. I need to rely on the grace of God for salvation. If that is you this morning, you slip your hand up. Preacher, I need to get saved. I need to rely on the grace of God to get me to heaven. I realize His grace is sufficient. Anybody like that, just slip it up. You do not know for sure you are going to heaven. I do not see any hands.
Hey, if you have experienced the grace of God at salvation, you can experience it every day in living and serving Him. Would you please stand? We are going to take a time, just an invitation time, where we are inviting you to come spend some time at the Lord at the old-fashioned altar. Would you come? Say, “Lord, Lord, help me to use this truth against the battle of worry. We all battle it.” Let Him know that. “Lord, help me live by Your grace. I am still relying on myself.” You let Him know that. Father, thank You so much for Your grace is sufficient. I sure need it. We all do. Thank you. It is there. Help us to claim it by faith. Help us to use this battle against worry. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen. Would you come? You raised your hand. God spoke to all.
“Just as I do not worry. Do my best. ‘My grace is sufficient.’” Think about that.
If you are not careful, Satan will have you looking at yourself. He is good at that. He will show you every flaw you have. He will show you every fall you have. He will show you the past baggage you have. He will show you every time you have messed up in the past, and he will tell you, “You cannot win.” But get your eyes—can I just say politely, kind of—get your eyes off yourself, get your eyes on His grace. “My grace is sufficient.” Would you at this time just do your best, get your eyes on His? Thank you for His grace. Love Him first grace. Say, “I want to live with My grace.” You let Him know that as we sing. Would you let Him know that?
I ask you, if I were to ask every person here, “What are you worried about?” Everybody would have—everybody would have something. I mean, all of us have reasons to worry, but can I say, no matter what you said, His grace would be sufficient for it, no matter what you said. And some of you, I know you have major battles, major supernatural battles. But His grace is sufficient. It is always, “My grace is sufficient.” So glad you are in church this morning. Be back tonight, and we are going to talk about the Bible versus Calvinism. And I want you to be in your place. If you do not know what it is all about, come tonight, we will try our best to explain it to you. You would be ready to give an answer, amen. And glad you are here this morning, every person. Appreciate you being in God’s house, and what a blessing that is. Let us see, I am looking at all the people I used this morning. I am trying to make up over the market and come up to Steve Page and different ones. But anyway, good to see everybody out this morning. How about Brother Mo? Good to see him slipping back there.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - How Not to Worry - Sunday AM 07102022