# Saving, Sustaining & Serving Grace

Key Passage: Ephesians 2:8-9
Date: June 7, 2024

Turn your mind, if you would, to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two in God’s Word this morning. We will start out at Ephesians chapter two.

Could you give me just a touch more, if you would? Brother Frank is already falling asleep, so we have to keep him awake. Who would we have to blame it on if we did not have Brother Frank right there? I appreciate Brother Frank. Very familiar passage here, Ephesians 2. For just a bit, we are going to talk about saving, sustaining, and serving grace.

Now, I really want to get to the serving part. I believe that is where God would have us focus. The only problem with that is we have to get through saving and sustaining, amen. That is hard for a preacher to get through something. They are wonderful subjects. And, of course, probably my favorite Bible doctrine is grace—God’s grace.

You ever hear someone talking about a product, and you think, man, they think that is the answer to everything? Take this medicine, take this vitamin, take this whatever—put this, what was it, royal jelly out for a, whatever it is. There are always different ones out that claim it will solve everything; it is the cure-all. You feel like you are back in the Western days where they set up with the little snake oil that fixes everything. That is the way I feel about grace, amen. I am serious about it. I believe it is in many ways the cure-all. It is amazing, and I love the subject of grace. If God can convince you what all the grace of God can do for you today, I would be happy—yes, for eternity, yes.

But for today, if God can convince you what the grace of God can do for you, I will be thrilled. It is one of those doctrines that we can get in our head pretty quick, but there is a difference between in your head and in your heart, and in your head and in your daily living. I will kind of get in there stronger and then I will slip out of it. I am just being honest with you.

It is always good for me to hear about serving grace, as we are just going to word it this morning. Some will call it living grace. But if they were the preacher, they could call it that, but I am the preacher today, so we will call it serving grace. We are going to start in Ephesians 2, verse number 8, verse number 8. Would you please stand, if you are able, to show the Word of God respect?

Since it is such a familiar passage, Ephesians 2, verse 8 and verse 9, let us just read or quote it out loud. If you think you need the Bible, use the Bible, amen. I am going to use it because I have to memorize, but as soon as I am in front of you, I forget it all. So maybe you are like me. Here we go. Ephesians 2, verse number 8: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Many of you know this story; I want to try to just briefly go through it. A man named John Newton had a very godly mother. She taught him the Word of God, the principles of the Word of God from a very young age. When he was just a boy, she died. His dad was a captain of a ship, a very sinful man. He kind of put the vocabulary of a sailor and all those things into John. John went sailing with his dad and learned the filth and the trash of the world and became a very, very sinful man.

He grew up and worked on a ship for years and years. He was back during the times of England and the slave market and whatnot, and he would travel often to islands to pick up slaves and bring them back. At one point in his life, he sank so low that he was actually captured and became a slave himself, living in debauchery—just a sinful, wicked, vile life. He got out of that. He became a captain of a ship where he was actually a slave trader himself. You would think after he had been a slave, he would get away from that, but he did not. He was just chained by sin. A very, very sinful, wicked man. He was a captain of that ship.

One night they got in a horrible storm. There are different accounts of the storm and how bad it was. I do not know if this is true; it is according to what you read. Some even say that he was at the wheel that the captain would turn. Some even said they had to strap him to the wheel, tied him to it because he would surely get washed off the deck on his own. That night was just so bad they thought they were going to die in that storm, and his mind went back to the truths that his mother had taught him as just a little fellow. It is amazing, by the way, what those children learn in Sunday school and children’s church—how much sticks with them. Praise the Lord for all the Sunday school and children’s workers in our church. We are so grateful for you all. The bus workers are bringing me in, and the children’s workers are teaching them those truths. Praise the Lord, as the story goes, for parents—that is God’s first option for sure. Praise the Lord for those godly mothers and parents telling the truth to those children. Well, this man, John, is there in that ship in the middle of the night in this storm, and the truths come back, and God is convicting him.

That night, he cried out to the Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy and His grace. The grace of God moved inside. Jesus came to give us grace. He brought grace. He is grace, and He embodies it, if you will. The Lord Jesus Christ moved in his heart, and John became a born-again Christian. He is a new creature. Old things have passed away. John began to live for the Lord, began to grow in his lifestyle and his vocabulary, and his life just changed dramatically. To the point that as he grew in the Lord, he became a preacher. I remember those days when his life was so sinful and vile, he was ashamed to talk about it, but he loved to talk about the amazing grace of God. He penned the song that we sing so often: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

I am so thankful for the saving grace of God. If you are thankful for God’s saving grace, would you say amen out there? Amen. I am so thankful for that. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing how God can reach down and save us from the guttermost—some will call it to the uttermost—and save us by the blood of Jesus Christ and His grace that He earned on the cross of Calvary. What a wonderful, wonderful thing.

By the way, let me just say a word before I get into this first part. We are trying to hurry along. Y’all keep stopping me. It is all your fault. We are going to be late here today. Can I just say this: if you say, “Well, I don’t have a testimony. I was raised in a Christian home, and I got saved at a young age, and I never did drugs. I never drank a bottle,” and all the rest of that, friend, you have a wonderful testimony. Do not ever think you do not have a great testimony. That is honestly, in many ways, the testimony we all wish we had. It is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Can I be honest with you? I am very blessed. I take no credit on my part. If I ever smoked a cigarette, they would kill me when I was a boy. If I said a dirty, dirty word, I was going to get my mouth, my hands, my head, and my ears—everything—washed out with soap. I did not have a lot of choice in those things. I always say, I was raised on drugs; I was drugged at church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday. I was in church nine months before I was born, amen. I am grateful for that. Praise the Lord for my mom and my dad that raised me in church. I am so thankful. I have been at teen activities in Christian school and on down the line. I am just blessed. That is all I can say. That is wonderful. I do not want to make light of that. That is a wonderful testimony. That is what we want. Praise the Lord, Miss Marie Strickland is back after surgery, back in church this morning. What a blessing that is. I am so thankful for that. What a dear saint. You are a saint, amen. Now, where was I?

Here is the thing: For those of us that are extremely blessed—I have never been drunk a day of my life. The only lady I have ever made out with is that lady over there, my wife. It is not Ariane; it is my wife, amen. Ariane is like, “Yeah!” I do not know about smoking a pack of cigarettes a day personally, and I am thankful for that. But I have noticed sometimes—I am talking personally here—that it can bother me when someone got saved out of a life of alcohol, maybe a man who got saved, he was a heroin addict, went to church for years. You understand? Many said you cannot overcome that. It took years, and it took some falls. As far as I know, he has not had any falls in years. He has a good family. Sometimes I have watched God really just transform a life, and I love to see that. It can bother me if they are more grateful for God’s saving grace than I am thankful for that.

There is a story in the Bible; it is over in Luke 7 about Jesus. He went to a Pharisee’s house. A Pharisee is one who carried around the family Bible so everybody could see how spiritual they are. They knew how to tie their tie just right with those dimples—you know, they had it right down to their belt buckle. They knew how to look apart. They knew how to talk the language. They knew how to put on airs as super-Christians. Jesus went to one of those men’s houses, a man named Simon, not Simon Peter.

When Jesus was at this house, this lady came in who was known in the community as being a very sinful lady. She comes in, and when she does, she sees Jesus. She takes this alabaster box—this is the best we have for an example right now. I have one in my office; I wish I had brought it over. She has this very precious ointment, and the Bible says she is behind Jesus, but she falls at Jesus’ feet and begins to wash Jesus’ feet with this ointment. The Bible says in another place a little bit later on she washed His feet with her tears and then with her hair. Back in the day, they did not have Reebok and Nike and all the rest of that. Those were dirty roads; they did not have asphalt. Just imagine how dirty our feet stink today, amen, especially if you do not wear socks. Wear socks so your feet do not stink so bad. That could preach, or what? We are going to preach the Bible whether you like it or not, amen. Where is that in the Bible? I do not know, but it is in there somewhere, friend.

The Bible says she washed with her tears, and then she dried them with her hair. Can you imagine that? Here is the thing: this sinful lady, wicked lady (and I use quotes on purpose), she is there, and the Pharisee—Mr. Super Christian—starts criticizing. He starts criticizing, “Well, Jesus, if you really are all-knowing, you would know that woman touching you and washing your feet, and her tears and her hair touching you—you would know that she is wicked. You would not let her do that, Jesus, if you know everything.”

Jesus turns to Simon and says, “Simon, let me tell you a story.” He said there was one time there was a creditor, people that loaned money out, and two different people owed him. I am using these numbers; do not study out the exact numbers. One guy owed the creditor $50,000. The other guy owed him $500,000. The creditor forgave both those men of their debt—$50,000, $500,000. Jesus said, “Simon, which one do you think would love the creditor the most?” Simon said, “I think the one that he forgave the most would love the most.” Jesus said, “You are right, buddy.”

He said, “When I came to the house, that lady there took that ointment. She has been washing my feet. She washed with her tears, her hair.” He says, “You did not even give me water.” Sometimes the custom was, if someone you valued and respected and loved came to your house, you would at least give them water. At least you would give them water to wash their feet. You did not even do that. This lady has been forgiven of her sins, and she loves much. You did not even put any water out for me to wash my feet, much less wash my feet yourself or anoint me with oil.

Friend, I do not want to love Him less because I was born and raised in a good Christian home. The honest, simple truth is that if the sin in my heart, the liquid in my heart, ever came out and I had fulfilled all that sin that was in there, I would probably be worse off than a whole lot of the rest of them. I often say, I have no doubt I would be in jail, and I really believe that. An honest, simple truth is that all of us are dirty, rotten sinners. All of us have pride, we have hate, we have jealousy, we have lust, we have envy—all of us have that in our hearts. If you had someone who loved you enough to put some rules and regulations around you, and God saved you early enough so that did not come to fruition, we ought to thank God for that grace.

I do not want someone else to love Him more than I love Him. I want to say, “Hey, man, the sin of my heart is just as black and as dirty as theirs.” He forgave me for that—not just the sins out in the open, but the sins of my heart. He forgave me for all of that, and I would like to love Him for that. Honestly, all of us ought to bow before Him, worship Him, adore Him, and use our tears and our hair to worship Him—the saving grace of God.

If it were not for the saving grace of God, all of us would be burning in hell forever and ever and ever. I have been saved for so long that I can forget about hell because I never have to worry about it as far as I am personally concerned. Friend, I am going to heaven. Before I got saved, God convicted me. I used to lie awake in my bed at nighttime thinking, “Are we going to heaven or hell?” I do not have to do that anymore. As far as I am personally concerned, it is not even there anymore because I know I am born again. I stand redeemed by the blood of Jesus. The Word of God will give you that security. I just do not have to worry about it anymore. First John 5:13 says He has given assurance. I know I am going to heaven. I never even think about that personally anymore.

Sometimes I think about hell for two reasons. One, because I do not want to lose my burden for the lost. Sometimes it does you good just to sit on a park bench somewhere as people walk by. Go to some of these parks when they have little league—oh, man, do not push you out of there, they are packed out. Go somewhere and just watch people walk by and think: that person is either going to heaven or they are going to hell forever. Sometimes it does good to think about that. That person is either going to burn, weeping and gnashing of teeth and crying for all eternity, or in heaven for all eternity, whether saved or lost. I think about hell sometimes just because I do not want to lose my burden for the lost. Sometimes I think about hell because it does me good to realize what I am, by the mercy of God, what I am missing out on.

Just think about that burning. The thing that gets me about hell is it is forever and ever. You do not go there and burn up; it is not annihilation. No, the Bible says the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. You will never pay for your sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that will fully justify and satisfy the righteousness of God. That is why you are continually paying for that sin if you do not let Jesus pay for all eternity. I will not go there. I will never burn for a second. I will never smell the brimstone, the stink, the stench of death. I will never smell that. I will never be in outer darkness and try to breathe in. It is like hot lava; you cannot breathe it if you do. It goes into your lungs all hot. I have never experienced it. I have never experienced the screaming and crying night and day. All the time you just want some peace—you will never get it in hell. I have never experienced that. I will never feel the heat. They say black fire; how can that be? We know the hottest flame is a black flame. Have you ever seen these racers, NASCAR or something? They get caught on fire, and you are like, “Why are they running around screaming and yelling? They are on fire, but I cannot see any fire.” Because it is a very hot fire. That is a little similar. I will never have that, not for a split second, and I owe it all to Jesus. Man, I want to love Him for His saving grace.

I do not have to worry about that. I do not have to think about it. I do not worry about it because of Jesus. We owe everything to Jesus. Jesus paid it all; to Him I owe. That is the saving grace of God. Now, very quickly—we were supposed to be done ten minutes ago, and Brother Frank, it is all his fault. Man, we owe Brother Frank a lot. I will tell you why now, just for a second.

Would you look over in Second Corinthians chapter 12? Just for a minute or two, we are going to try to hurry through this and just hit sustaining grace. You will know the story, many of you. It is Paul when he went to the Lord about the thorn in the flesh. We do not know exactly what that was. Most think it was his eyes; he could not see well. We will let them argue about it until the cows come home; we will go to my Lord. Amen. You can say amen right there. Amen. We are not sure. There is nothing wrong with trying to find out. We probably will not know for sure until we get to heaven.

He went to the Lord thrice—three times. I think it was three seasons of prayer. I think he probably fasted each time. Maybe he spent a couple of days each time: “Lord, You have to take this thing; it is killing me, Lord.” He says it is buffeting. That is when they would put a black bag, typically over the face, and just pound you with the fists. It is just beating the snot out of me. That is Tennessee but accurate, amen. Beating the tar out of me. He said, “You have to do something about it.”

This is the Lord’s answer to that prayer: verse number nine, Second Corinthians chapter 12. Look at verse number nine right there. “And he said unto me…” If you have a red-letter edition, the next part is in red; it is the Lord talking to him. “…My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” By the way, when you pray to God, He either answers your prayer or He changes your heart. In this instance, He did not answer his prayer; He changed his heart.

Look at it. He said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Now, I want us to focus for just a minute. His answer was, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Sometimes God allows tough times, things that beat the snot out of you in your life. He allows it. I am not saying He always causes it, but He allows it. God was allowing this in Paul’s life.

I am not sure. Maybe it was that he could not see well. He says, “I preach, but I cannot even see the people I like.” If I write, I have to write like a mile long, you know, a 38-inch post. I am not sure, but this thing was hampering him. He traveled all over. Can you imagine trying to travel all over when you cannot see real good? Last week I ran into three fence posts. I keep running into light poles everywhere I go. I got black and blue—it was not from persecution; it is because I ran into things I could not see. Last week I called Stephen Page, Kevin Cooper. What a mistake that was. I do not know. It was bothering him, buffeting him. He calls it the messenger of Satan. God often allows Satan to beat on us, if you will. But God’s answer to that trial, that circumstance in his life, was, “Paul, My grace will be sufficient. I will give you what you need to get through that thing.” In your worst of times, in your darkest of days, when it is just all you can do to put one foot in front of the other, friend, I promise you, His grace—if you look for it—it will be sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Pastor Carter was with us just a couple weeks ago. He had pastored for about 54 years, retired from pastoring, of course, still preaching. He preached for us, but we went out to Jim and Nick’s after Sunday morning service. Somebody say amen right there. Man, I had ribs. Do you want to talk about good ribs? Woo! I will tell you what. I was just trying to encourage him and brag on him a little bit as a pastor. Fifty-four years at Landmarking, all together about 54 years pastoring—that is amazing. He said, “Well, Paul,” I said something like, “Man, how did you do that?” He said, “Paul,” and he has that Southern drawl, “Honestly, I do not know how I did it. To be honest, probably just the grace of God.” And it was.

He did not talk about tough times; he did not quit. His take on it all was just the grace of God kept him going. Friend, you are going to go through tough times, whether you are living for the Lord or not, whether you are saved or lost. You are going to go through tough times. We live in a sin-cursed world. There will come times when it is just all you can do to get up and stay up and go to work. You just want to sleep your life away during those times. You are discouraged and defeated and hurting all over. You feel like you are on the edge of tears all the time. You are going to have those days. But Frank, can I remind you during those times, on those days? His grace is sufficient. You say, “Preacher, it is my own fault; I am in this situation.” I understand, and I am not trying to say that is not true. It may be true in your life, but even in those times, His grace is sufficient. The book of James says, “He giveth more grace.” Even a bachelor in Christ himself, up in prison somewhere, knows His grace is sufficient.

For just a moment, just say, “Hey, you are going through that time.” By the way, either you are going through that time or you will be going through that time. His grace will be sufficient. It is saving grace, and praise the Lord, it is sustaining grace. Now, let us try to get to this last thing where I believe the Lord would have us focus a little bit. Look over in Hebrews chapter 12 very quickly here. For the sake of time, we are not going to read the verses before it. Let me just say this, kind of a preface on it: He is talking about the kingdom of God. If you are born again, you have access to the kingdom of God, and he is talking about that—that it is unmovable. It is unmovable because the kingdom of God is not relying on you; it is relying on Jesus. Jesus reigns yesterday, today, and forever. Let us talk about this kingdom, all right? I just kind of want to get that other way, and I want to focus on one thing very quickly this morning: Hebrews 12.

We have to hurry along because the Presbyterians are getting out of church right now. They have already beaten you to Jim and Nick’s. And the Pentecostals, we may be running to get there before them. I am not sure. If you go there, talk to the manager; he is Pentecostal. Hebrews 12, look at verse number 28. The Bible therefore says, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Now, just for a second, I want to focus on that: “Let us have grace whereby we may serve God.” We have talked about saving grace; we have talked about sustaining grace. Let us talk for just a minute about serving. Sometimes we leave that; we do not comprehend, we do not put into our life this matter of serving grace.

How many of you have ever had a vehicle that was having some kind of mechanical problem, and it went into what they call limp-in mode? Anybody know what I am talking about, limp-in mode? As you are having a problem, whether it be your transmission or your engine, different things, different codes, it will put your vehicle into a certain mode they call limp-in mode. It typically will put it maybe in second gear; the RPMs will only go so high, and it is kind of like putting your car on crutches. It does not want you to get stranded on the side of the road, but it does not want you to tear up your transmission and pay $4,000 to get it fixed. Amen for that. It does not want you to race it up to 6,000 RPM and overheat the head gasket, warp the heads, and all the rest of that. So it puts it in limping mode. It will go about 30 miles an hour. It will not take off very good. It will not shift. You are like, “What is wrong with this car?” Well, the problem is it is not a Chevy. That is what is wrong with it. Brother Kevin says, “For it,” amen. That is what it should be. But it puts it in limping mode, and it will just kind of limp in.

Sometimes we think that the grace of God is just for limping mode. It is. You are being hurt. You did not get up and read your Bible. You did not praise as you ought to and all those things. It is. The grace of God is for limping mode. I totally 110,000 percent agree with that. By the way, I am thankful for limping grace, if you will. But there is also what the Bible calls serving grace. It is for more than just limping mode. My wife and I rented scooters years ago. My wife and I, when our kids were little and my parents, we were in St. Augustine, Florida, and we rented scooters. We have pictures of my dad driving and my mom on the back of that scooter, and Mom saying, “Slow down!” No, I am joking about that part. It probably was true; I am not sure about that part. But we were all riding scooters.

Some of these scooter places require it to be 50cc or lower—49cc, 49.99cc—for it to be legally on the road for people not having motorcycle licenses, all this stuff. Here is the thing: I think one time it was just my wife and I, and maybe the kids—I am not sure about the kids at that time. We were riding in Clearwater, Florida, on the main roads. You are on this little scooter, and you are riding on the main roads over this big bridge that goes up for a while. You are trying to ride way over on the right side of the road because you are going 20 miles an hour, and these cars are going 45, 50, 70 miles an hour, boom, boom, boom, just flying by you. They tell you that scooter rides the best, the fastest, and the most powerful if you put high octane in there. You can put regular octane in there, but it is going to pop, pop. I am already going 20 miles an hour; I do not want to go five miles an hour. So, man, you put premium in there.

The serving grace of God is when we are empowered, fueled by the grace of God. We are not serving God anymore out of our own strength, our own character. Friend, your character is only going to get you so far. It is when you are serving Him. Yes, you are saved, yes, it sustains you, but not only that, it empowers you to serve Him. The very desire to serve God comes by the grace of God. Paul said, “In my flesh, there is no good thing.” Really, every good thing we have is by the grace of God.

I cannot remind you, we do not look at it because we are in another time, but I cannot remind you that last week we were preaching on grace. I think we will again next Sunday. That verse over there: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” The grace of God is not just so you can limp in. Yes, it is from time to time; it is sustaining; it is saving. But it is more than that. It is so you can be rich.

We mentioned last Sunday. That does not necessarily mean money-wise rich. It might be that you are rich in boldness to give out a gospel tract. It might be your neighbor: “I am going to invite them to Easter, but I am so nervous and afraid I cannot do it.” But by the grace of God, I am going to go over there by the grace of God, and I am going to be empowered, fueled by the grace of God, to invite them to church. Give it a try. It is the grace of God. You are living, you are empowered, you are serving by the grace of God. You are rich as a Christian.

You say, “How do I get rich?” Through His grace—God’s riches at Christ’s expense. You say, “I cannot be the leader I ought to be. If I am supposed to be a spiritual leader in the home, the head and the husband, I was not raised like that. I was put down in my life. I could not tell anybody what to do. I am afraid of my own shadow. How can I be the spiritual leader? I do not know; she knows the Bible better than me anyway.” Preacher, how can I know that? I tell you how to do it: You serve God by His grace. His grace empowers you to be the man or the lady He wants you to be.

What does that look like? It looks like a million different forms of the grace of God. It could be the grace of God that shows you little nuggets after your Bible that a preacher or some theologian does not know, but God in His grace shows you that wonderful truth. It could be God’s grace that gives you a wonderful wife who says, “I do not care how much Bible you know; I know you are an honest, sincere man, and you are trying to lead us; I want to follow you.” That could be the grace of God. It could be 10,000 different forms that God gives. Maybe He just gives your children a special love. Maybe you do not know the Bible as well as you are learning it, you are working at it, but you are just funny; you are hilarious. So the kids listen to you, not because you know the Bible well, but because you are a funny guy. I do not know what it looks like, but I promise you He will give you the grace to serve Him. He has it.

The amazing thing about it—I think we will talk about it next Sunday. I am not going to go there yet; we have enough to cover here. I will talk about that part next Sunday. You have to come back now, you know, you have to bring somebody with you, too. Years ago, we had a church lawnmower—not the one before, but the one before that. Someone gave it to us. It had two gas tanks in the back; it was a zero-turn lawnmower. One of our men at the time was just learning how to use a zero-turn mower. He was trying to do wheelies with it; I am not sure. He was riding that thing, and he rode a little bit too close to one of our buses we had, and the fender well was sticking out a little bit. Those gas tanks—it was a plastic gas tank—and he ran along that fender well of that bus, and it just sliced the top of that tank. Steve Page is laughing; he is enjoying that part. The gas would leak out of that, and we were like, “Hey, do not put much gas in that tank.” Something about hot mufflers and gas just does not mix real good. So we would keep, say, an inch of gas on that one—I cannot remember. We will say the right side tank. We would keep just a little bit of gas at the bottom of that tank, but the left side we kept filled up. We put just a little bit over there for limp-in mode, if you will.

Here is the thing about that: That lawnmower was a little bit older. It had a little lever back there, and we had put a little line on there with a magic marker. If it was flicked over there, that meant the left tank. If it was flicked over there, that meant the right tank. It was drawing fuel from either one of those tanks. The way you serve God by grace, it is so important which tank you are relying on, which tank you are believing in, which tank you are resting and trusting in. If my lever is pointed over here to me, then God says, “All right, I will let you serve Me by your own power.” Remember what He said in John 15? “Without Me, you can do what?” We mess everything up. We run out of strength, we run out of power. But I can truly, day in, day out, when I get up in the morning all day long, if I am relying on Him, I am turning that lever over there to the left tank. I should not mention this, but I have to, amen.

Beverly Hillbillies, anybody ever watched that? Shame on you. But anyway, remember Granny? Remember what Granny would make in the jug? Do you remember that episode where they are driving that old vehicle, you know, from 1918? They ran out of gas and they were broke down, and they poured in Granny’s jug. Man, that thing—the tires spinning, dust going everywhere. That is what happens when I say, “You know what, Jesus? I am going to rely on what You have provided for me.” I do not want to be the husband, the dad, the wife, because that is not much; I mess it all up. You say, “I am going to rely on You, Jesus. I will watch what You won for me on the cross of Calvary.” He has the grace you need for every single day. I think Paul focuses—we were going to get to it, we do not have time—but he says, “You know what? I am what I am by the grace of God.”

Yes, a couple of verses—he was talking about how he was a sinful man before, persecuted the church. Let me read it for you so you can kind of see. 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; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” He was speaking of serving grace. He said, “I labored more abundantly than they all,” but it was not me; it was that fuel. I was empowered by the grace of God.

Paul knew it so well. “You know what I am? I am just a product of God’s grace”—yes, saving, yes, sustaining, and even day in, day out, serving. It is a different mindset because we are so self-reliant. We are just used to kind of… You ever find yourself when the going gets tough, you just kind of bear it out, thinking, “I am going to make it through”? That is not bad, but there is better. In bad and hard times, God is going to give me the grace. I am looking to You for the grace I need going through this. I believe it is going to be there. Some people will die and go to hell; they are relying on themselves to be good enough to go to heaven. But some of them humble themselves and put their faith in Jesus Christ, rely on His grace. They miss the fires of hell and gain the streets of gold, heaven, to be with the Lord for all eternity because they put their faith—humbled themselves—put their faith in the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ. You live like that day in, day out. You have to work at it because our natural inclination is to be self-reliant. We say, “No, I do not want to be self-reliant; I want to be Christ-reliant.”

I love the song, “Oh, for grace to trust Him more.” Even the trust of faith I have to put in Him is by His grace.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Saving, Sustaining & Serving Grace - Sunday AM 03242024