# How to Get Grace

Key Passage: Romans 8
Date: July 6, 2025

Now, think about those words. He hideth my soul in the depths of his love. Kind of reminds you of Romans 8 over there: Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Let me put it in our everyday language: If you’re a born-again Christian, folks, you can kind of relax. Everything’s going to be okay. Amen. I mean, you’re right in the middle of His hand.

Nothing can come into your life unless it has come across His desk for His approval first. Just kind of rest in His love. That’s a good place to be. And another good place to be is in His house on the Lord’s Day. We’re honored to have you here today. That’s just awesome to see every single person here, and thrilled to have you out today. And we are honored to have Ms. Wanda back with us today. Amen.

I promise you, there’s someone watching in a special place in a special way this morning. Of course, we miss Brother Frank, but he’s at home. And we’re honored to have Ms. Wanda with us today, and her son, Jerry, and daughter-in-law, Donna. Good to have them. They’re just dear friends. Good to have them with us today.

And I thought it was awesome. The family said, “We’re going to go.” They go to their church, which is great, about an hour or so, an hour and a half from here. So we’re going to go down and make sure Mom’s got somebody to be with her when she’s back in church. So it’s just awesome.

By the way, we have some newlyweds here today. A young newlywed couple, Brother Jim and Ms. Rebecca Lash. Would you all stand? That newlywed couple there? Yeah.

Is it two, three weeks? Two, two weeks. Two weeks. I mean, when you’re having fun, time flies. There you go, you know. Two weeks of one day. And I’m honored to see them today. That’s awesome.

Wonderful to have one of our missionaries with us. And we appreciate the Painters. They’ve done a wonderful job, aviation missionaries, just training missionaries to fly. Can you imagine the hours and the money, and the sickness, and on and on, they’re serving missionaries? And I love it. Doing a wonderful job. Excited to hear what God’s doing in the ministry. There in Sunday school, we got to hear a little bit about that this morning. And just good to have everyone here. Good to have some guests back with us today. And I’m honored to have you in the Lord’s House on a Sunday morning.

We’ve got something special. Our ladies come together on Tuesday and they make—it’s blankets of love, but they don’t make blankets. I’ve been corrected. They make quilts. All right, now, you know. And they’ve got a quilt to give out today, and they always do a wonderful, wonderful job. By the way, if you’re interested in that ministry, see Ms. Brenda Crossland about that. There she is back there, Miss Brenda. And a great, great ministry. They make a card for the individual that’s receiving the quilt, and, of course, the quilt. Yeah, I like that. I like the blue on there. Come on now, we’ve got to have unity. All right, here we go. There we go.

This is our tradition. Here we go. One, two, three. Ah, yeah, yeah. And they got the heart on the back. We’ve got to see the back of it, that heart there. And they got two hearts anymore, yeah. And they got this verse on there. It’s a great, great verse. And He said it to me: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Of course, that’s God’s answer to Paul over there when he had the thorn in the flesh and he had praised the Lord over it. Then inside the card, it says, “Thank you, heavenly Father. We can always trust Your purpose and Your promise.” And then the Bible verse we looked at in Sunday school today: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” And this quilt goes to Steve and Sherry Goforth this morning. Amen. These are great people. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Brother Goforth pastored Fair Haven’s Independent Baptist Church in Murfreesboro 21 years, if I remember right, and just still faithful. We’ve got a heart full of the Lord, want to be used by God. I love their spirit, and they’ve been a blessing to our church and just adding life to it. We appreciate them and thank God for their faithfulness all these years. I met them over 25, about 26 years ago now, and he was a song leader out of church and then pastored a couple different churches, and pastoring 21 years the same church. I’d say in something and did a wonderful job. I appreciate them very, very much, and they’re a blessing. You keep praying for them.

Now, Brother Goforth. It seems like she stole that thing. Maybe you can get like a corner of it or something. Goodness gracious. They’re going to fight over that thing. Amen.

We’ve got teens going to camp tomorrow morning. They’re supposed to meet here at 6 a.m. tomorrow. What about that? All the teens that are going to camp, if you’d stand—all those going to camp, would you please stand? Yeah.

Now, all right, they stood. Thank you, young people. Thank you very much. How many of you would promise to pray for them this week? If you’d raise your hand. Raise your hand. All right, we got video cameras, just took a picture of you. You’ll have a questionnaire. I would think after the tragedy in Texas, we’d have more prayers than ever, and that would be great. You pray for their safety, of course. Pray that God would make it a fun week for them, but just a life-changing week. It’s sometimes the best place for God to work in the heart of a teenager: get them away from the norm and everything. Go have a blast with them all day long, and then God working through a preacher. And just a great, great combination. You pray for this week. Pray that God would do a great, great work. And God will make clear.

I was thinking about Lucas that preached for us last Sunday night, and when he was debating about going to the Marines or not, whatnot, and he went to camp, and God got a hold of his heart. I thought he was going to come back and say, “God, let me hear the other,” but he said, “God confirmed it in my heart that I’m supposed to go to the Marines.” And he did. For eight years now, Bible College, graduated, whatnot. But camp—so many young people have made great, great decisions at camps. And you pray that God would just speak very clearly, very precise, to the young people’s hearts this week. I’m so proud of them. Some of them can’t go; I understand that. But I’m so proud of being praying for. I’ll be praying for this week for sure, our young people going to camp. And maybe we’ll work at getting the names of the young people. Maybe we’ll get them printed out or something where we can pass them out tonight. I want you to pray for them individually—20 young people. And then pray for Patrick and Marlene being at camp all week, and they’ll have their California King bed to be sleeping in, and everything’s air-conditioned, and no mosquitoes where they’re at, and wonderful. They have pretty good food there. But you pray, you pray for Patrick and Marlene. God would give them strength and wisdom, and just be with their spirit also to encourage. Pray for them. Pray for 20 teens, Patrick and Marlene. You pray for them, if you would, please, this week in a great, great way. And that will be wonderful.

Also, Brother Frank. Speaking of Brother Frank, watching this morning, we’re going to have his celebration of life service the 19th. It’s a Saturday. One o’clock will have visitation here, then two o’clock the service here. And so if you can come, everybody, you had to love Brother Frank. I mean, he loved everybody. And what an incredible man in our church for years and years and years. And I miss him. Someone yesterday at the Fourth of July kept saying, “I miss Brother Frank.” And I say, “I do too. I do too.” But he’s at home. But nothing wrong with us mourning and grieving a little bit and missing him. He’s just a dear brother. But that’ll be the 19th. And so if you can help with that, be a part of that, that will be great. We’d love to have you come for that. I know what I mean, a lot to the family, for sure.

Ushers, if you come forward, we appreciate that. Let me just put a plug in one of our very important ministries: Love and Action Ministry. Ms. Myra just took that ministry. Ms. Tammy McCoy did a wonderful job with it, and for a while—for over a year, maybe close to two years, I’m not sure, I can’t keep track of it all—and then Ms. Myra took that ministry, doing a wonderful job. But we can always use more help in that. It seemed like feast or famine type thing, you know. The week of the 15th, now that’s the Tuesday, we have a preacher’s fellowship here, and we got some men that’s cooking some smoked ribs and smoked chicken, whatnot. But then the sides and the desserts, our ladies will be helping with that. Ms. Myra helping with that. And then, of course, the celebration of life after that, they’ll have a meal for the family, and we want to do those things. Just that ministry always needs help. Such a vital ministry. If you ever, or maybe just got out of the hospital or whatnot or going through a tough time, and they serve so many, and it’s a blessing, I’ll tell you for sure. And so if you can help with that, there’s a sign-up sheet on the back table about those things or see Ms. Myra about that. That would be great.

How many have ever been served by the Love and Action Ministry? You’ve been served by that? I would say, oh, that’s close to half. It’s kind of like if we could all do it at one time. If you’ve ever been served by the list of thing, there we go, there we go. We can get a good look at it there. Maybe a third, at least a third. And I know some of our workers out in other classes have been served by also. Great ministry. So if you can help with that, that will be wonderful, a great, great blessing.

And speaking of ribs, we had a great time, Fourth of July picnic, Friday night, just a great time. Good turnout. More than I thought. Just a good time. Nobody got killed by the fireworks. Praise be to God for that. And we had some people that increased their prayer life a little bit for sure, you know. About a great time. Brother Bill Johanon won the best ribs. And so tell him he needs to cook some ribs for you. Would you do that? And there he is over there. There he is. That a good job. Him, Brother Martin, both. I appreciate it very much. A good, good time. And Brother Bill, would you at least more prayer for all? Please, brother.

Thank you so much, Brother Adam. Appreciate that very, very much. Turn your Bibles, if you would, please. 1 Peter. 1 Peter, chapter number 5. Be back in the back part of your Bible. First Peter is right before 2nd Peter, amen. First Peter towards the back of the Bible. Chapter number 5. Once you find that, look up here. I know I’m ugly, but look up here anyway. Amen.

And this year, the theme for this year is “By Grace, By Grace.” And the first Sunday of the month, we focus on that, try to preach on that on Sunday morning, first Sunday morning of the month about grace. And help me out. We’re learning some things. Many of you probably already knew these things, but grace.

A great definition for the word grace, G-R-A-C-E—help me out—is: If you know it, stay with me: “God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” It really goes so good with this verse right here, 2 Corinthians 8:9. I don’t know if you can see it from back there, and we don’t have the complete verse; got some dots representing a portion of what we took out there, but: “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.”

It’s amazing. You say, does God know what it’s like to do without? Jesus, which is God, know what it’s like to do without—what poverty? Did you know that He who is rich became in poverty, lived in poverty, that ye might be rich?

It’s amazing. And that riches there doesn’t necessarily mean money. It could be that. But there’s a whole lot of things, a whole lot more important than money. But God wants you to be rich with His blessings. And that represents grace. Jesus earned it all on the cross of Calvary.

I love the illustration, the kind of just God set forth, of Joseph—a picture of Jesus—how he went into Egypt, the world, and he stored up everything they needed for the time of famine. And Jesus on the cross stored up all the grace you need for this lifetime, everything you need for all eternity, really. He’s got stored up, and Jesus earned it for you when he came to this old world and suffered and bled and died on the cross of Calvary for you. So it’s grace: God’s riches at Christ’s expense. It’s a wonderful thing.

You know, it’s amazing nowadays, but we get everything delivered. I’m getting bad about it. You know, who wants to go to the store? You can push a little thing there, you order whatever you want.

And I was asked one of our men. He’s told me before that he’s the spender and his wife is the thrifty one. He said, “It’s beginning to change, Pastor. She’s clicking that button for Amazon a whole lot anymore,” you know. And another one of our couples kind of joking a little bit about the husband; he’s ordering a lot of packages or getting delivered here lately, you know.

And Amazon or the post office postman, you know, Brother David McCord, he’s delivering it, or, you know, FedEx or whoever it may be. But all these delivery trucks—I thought that’s kind of the way it is: all the blessings in your life is delivered by this truck called grace. And you didn’t earn it for Him. The best you can do is filthy rags. It’s His grace. And He’s so gracious. Jesus earned it on the cross of Calvary.

And the blessings of God. These young men going to go to camp. I guarantee you someone’s going to get basketball games over there. I’ve been out and preached at that camp, spent a week down there in that camp, got involved in basketball games, and I needed grace when I was playing basketball, I promise you, you know. And they’ll need grace to beat those other guys, you know, in basketball, whatever may be. But grace comes in all kinds of forms and shapes and packages, but it’s all delivered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And grace. Now, we’re going to just for a bit this morning—no longer than three hours, I promise you. All right, now, you know. Somebody will laugh. Somebody didn’t laugh. Somebody like, “Oh, no, man. We’re in trouble this morning,” you know. But for just a bit: How to have grace. How to have grace. And 1 Peter 5 gives incredible, important truth. First Peter 5.

How many—how many of you want grace in your life? I’m going to raise both hands. Hand and a half on that one. I want grace, man. I need grace. Anyone want grace in your finances? Anyone want grace in your health? Anyone want grace on your diet? Raise my foot on that one, too. And I need it for sure, you know. How to have grace. How to have grace for just a bit this morning. First Peter chapter number five. And we are going to start in verse number five. Would you please stand if you’re able to?

Just to show the word of God respect, 1 Peter 5 and verse number 5 of God’s word this morning. If you’re there, would you say amen? Good. Dear, here we go. He says, “Likewise.” He’s been talking to the elders. Now he says, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.” Watch this: “Yea, all of you, everyone, all of you be subject one to another.” Wow. “And be clothed with humility.” I like that. Here it is: This phrase is also found elsewhere in the Bible: “For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” That’s a key phrase. You want grace? “And giveth grace to the humble.” This is found also in James 4, just one word change. It’ll say, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Here it says, “and giveth grace unto the humble.”

Verse number six, he says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”

Would you pray that the Lord would make these verses real to your individual—just to your life? Lord, would You speak to me about these verses? Would you ask the Lord to do that as we go to the Lord together in prayer this morning?

Father, we do come. Lord, I pray that You would to every person here, Lord. Would You make this truth come alive? I need it for sure, Lord. Thank You for the wonderful, yes, Lord, maybe a little bit of rebuke, but then the promise also: You give grace to the humble. Lord, let that encourage. Lord, use this truth in every single one of our lives. Speak to us about it. And, Lord, we’ll thank You for what You do. Father, we ask for this in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. How do we have grace? I think we all established we want grace. How do I have grace in my life? Well, the first thing: that little phrase there, “God resisteth the proud.” Never forget, I was around 12 years old, 11, 12, 12, I think it was. And me and my older brother, we saved up a little bit of money, and we bought an old, ragged-out, halfway broke-down motorcycle. It was a Honda Trail 70. Any of you know—anybody know those? A couple of you guys like, “Yep.” Any of you have an old honk—good, I got some brothers in here now, you know. It’s this old antique motorcycle, you know. It’s got these handle parts come up, just this old thing. And we had this thing, and it had a kickstart. You’d kick and kick until your knee gave out, and it’s still—you’d have to push for about a half an hour after that. But once it cranked, man, I think it’d run. I mean, it was awesome. If someone was around with a car, praise the Lord, let’s hook a rope up to that car and pull us until that thing cranked, you know.

And I thought I was all that riding my Honda Trail 70. I mean, I was picturing I’m riding a big Harley, you know. I’m all this little bit of dirt bike. And I was coming out of the woods. We lived in a camper trailer park type thing. And we lived in the camper at the time. We had traveled somewhat, ministry different things. And I’m coming out of the woods behind the camper we lived in. There’s another camper over there, and I’m just flying. I mean, I probably was going 140 miles an hour—if you got the Honda Trail 70 to that, you’re saying something. I don’t know what I was going. I was riding along, my little 12-year-old mind, I’m flying, you know.

And the next thing I know, I’m waking up off the ground. I mean, I’m laying on the ground. I’m waking up, coming up. And I felt this burning sensation across my chest right here. If you lift my shirt up, there was a welt forming across there. And the neighbors that live back behind us, they had a—back in the day, you know, we didn’t have internet; Al Gore hadn’t invented it yet, you know. And it was really a little bit before the dishes and all that stuff. And you had a lot of TV antennas. And then they had that wire going down the side, you know, it was a metal guy wire. And it’s hard to see when you’re going 140 on your Harley, you know.

Man, I’m riding out of the woods through that yard, you know. I never even saw that thing. It saw me, I promise you. Literally, I woke up on the ground. And it’s funny thing, it broke that guy wire. Probably the Lord broke it for me, you know. And so, you know, the motorcycle’s up there. I’m laying on the ground, got this welt, you know. And Dad finds out about it. You know what Dad doesn’t say? “Are you okay, boy?” He said, “Got to fix their antenna, boy.” So, thank Dad with me whenever they knocked on the door. I’m sorry, I broke your guy wire, you know, we’ll fix it. They said, “You couldn’t have. There’s no way you could have broke it.” I’m telling you, I got to help to prove it, you know, I broke it. “No, you can hit it, and it—it’ll cut you in half,” you know, “you can.” And finally, I kept saying, “I’ll fix it,” and finally they said, “All right, boy, they didn’t want you to fix it, leave it alone.” I said, “Praise the Lord right there.” A little mercy going on in the midst of that.

Now, I tell you that story because God says He resists the proud. Sometimes, man, you’re just riding along, think you got the world by the tail, and before we know it, we’re getting a little proud. And God said, “Hey, I give grace to the humble, but the proud—you don’t want God resisting you.” You’ll be like me. You wake up on your back on the ground. God resists the proud.

Now, here’s something about pride. It can be a little bit tough. How do I know when I have pride? Because pride is often—it’s often a root sin. You know, roots typically you don’t see. Every once in a while, you’ll see a little bit of root. For the most part, they’re underground. You can see the products of a root. Remember Satan, the original sin, we often call it that. He said in his heart, “What is that there?” But it was the sin. God saw it, of course. God looks at the heart. But you know what? Everybody else, he may have looked like the best seraphim, you know, angel there was. But he was saying in his heart that pride. Let me just briefly here. Let’s try to—do I have any pride in my life? Let me give you a couple things, products. You know, the roots down there you can’t—but you see that plant coming up. My wife planted some sunflower seeds a while back, and now we’re starting to get some of them coming up. And so the root, we can’t really see it, but it does have some product.

Look over, if you will, in Proverbs 13. Let’s just look real quickly here. Seven products of pride. It’s a root sin you can’t always see. It’s hard to know, and your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things; who can know it? So here’s some products if I have pride—byproducts, you might want to say. Proverbs 13, look in verse number 10. Proverbs 13, in verse number 10 of God’s word. I don’t want proud—I don’t want pride in my life because if I have it, God resists the proud. I want that grace; I need that grace.

Look what it says right here. Do I have pride? Do I have pride in my life? Proverbs 13, look at verse number 10. The first word is really amazing. Help me out. What’s the first word of Proverbs 13:10? “Only.” Wow. Only by pride. Wow. It doesn’t say 50% of the time. It doesn’t say 99. It says, “Only by pride cometh contention.” That last part of that verse there: “but with the well-advised is wisdom.” With the well-advised is wisdom. I think it has to do sometimes—you get well-advised. Man, I got problems, too. You know, I got my flaws, for sure, too. I think that has a little bit, but only by pride.

It’s amazing. Some people, they have contention in just about every one of the relationships that they don’t want to stop and realize, “Hey, something must be going on here.” If you’ve got contention at work, at the house, you know, everywhere you go is contention—only by contention, just no peace. Only by pride cometh contention.

You’re in Proverbs already. Look over in Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. There are seven byproducts of having pride. Do I have pride or not? Well, if I got contention in my life…

All right. Then notice what he says in Proverbs 16 and verse number 18. You’ll probably know the verse. Proverbs 16:18. Tell you about—if you know it, quote it, or would you read it with me out loud together? Here we go: “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” That’s the Honda Trail story right there—the fall. Here, this is a byproduct. You just can’t get ahead in life. It’s amazing. Sometimes they’re very capable, they’re very hardworking, but they just never get ahead. That’s because of pride. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. We just read with them, 1 Peter 5: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” And just pride and get up a little bit and boom, I fall. Pride will do that. Pride will do that.

You’re in Proverbs. Look over in Psalms. It’s the book right before Proverbs. Look in Psalms 138. Psalms 138. More chapters in the book of Psalms than in the book of the Bible—150 chapters. We’re going to read every one of them today? No, we’re not going to do it. Look at Psalms 138 and look in verse number six right here, verse number six. Just some products that have pride in my life. What’s it going to look like? If I never can get ahead, I got contention, drama is going on everywhere. We sometimes talk about drama queens; there are drama kings too, contention, you know.

Now look at this. Look at this. Here’s a third byproduct of being proud or having pride. Psalm 138, verse number six: “Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly.” No, “He hath respect unto the lowly.” Watch this: “But the proud, he knoweth afar off.” Hey, a product of me having pride: I can’t get close to the Lord. And sometimes you feel like, “I need You.” And by the way, if you get close to the Lord, that’s nothing—nothing else in all the world like that. “In Thy presence is fullness of joy. Times of refreshing has come from being in the presence of the Lord.” And sometimes I just can’t get close to the Lord. It may be the Bible says the proud He knoweth afar off. Just can’t get close to Him. Sometimes pride.

Products of pride. Number four, I’m going to try to move along here a little bit. If I just have a lack of love—love for people. You know, the Bible, 1 John 4:8 says, “He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.” If it always at the end of the day, even your showing of love comes back to what you get out of it, it makes you look and all the rest, it always just comes back to you. That’s a lack of love, see. And because if I’m going to have true agape love, charity, I’ve got to know God. But I can’t know Him closely if I’m proud. Sometimes it’s just all about me, me, me, me, me. Yes, that’s pride in itself. But you can’t overcome that because you can’t get close to Him who will give you love because of your pride.

Number five, we’re trying to move along here. Just, just, what’s what He said within First Peter. We just read it: First Peter, chapter number five, right there. That first verse we read, verse number five: “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elders. Yea, all of you be subject one to another.” That’s interesting. Be subject. If nobody can tell you anything, it’s pride. Or if somebody does tell you something, you’re always going to have something to say back, or it’s going to be an argument or whatever, you know. “Be subject one to another.” Everybody be subject one—everybody. Pretty amazing.

Number six, we’re going to get off this thing because it’s quiet in here when you get these things because we’re all guilty from time to time. Looking from Proverbs 21, back over Proverbs 21. I want you to see this real quickly here. Proverbs 21, just looking at seven products of being proud. Pride is a root sin, so I don’t know if I have pride. Well, all right, let’s look at these. Do you have contention? And on and on and on. Am I close to God? Can I never get ahead? Can nobody tell me what to do? Ever look over there, Proverbs 21, look at verse number 24. And that’s a little bit to this one here. We’re going to try to go through it real quickly here, so just try to—some of you’ve been around, we’ve discussed this in greater depth. But look at this: Proverbs 21, look at verse number 24. He says, “The proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath.”

Okay, let’s try to define a couple things here, all right? He uses this word “scorner.” Proud and haughty scorner. What is the scorner? A scorner is just a severe critic. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, who’s around, they’re going to critique and criticize, especially leadership, but they’re just always criticizing. They’re critiquing every little bitty error. If you’re the leader, you’re going to get tired because there are scoffers around. They’re always packing on you, you know? And there’s a scorner—a severe critic, all right? That’s a scorner, all right?

Then he uses this word here, “wrath.” You say, “What’s wrath?” There’s a difference in anger and wrath. “Be ye angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Two different things here. Anger is that initial—someone makes you mad, and it’s that initial, you know, lashing out; that’s anger. By the way, you can be angry and sin not. Not necessarily bad; you control it. But then he says, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” What’s wrath? Wrath is that if something happens, you get hurt, you get wounded or whatever, and it’s just—it’s inner smoldering. It can go on sometimes for months or years or a lifetime sometimes. It says wrath.

And now notice what it said: this severe critic, a scorner. Look back at that verse: “Proud and haughty scorner is his name who dealeth in proud wrath.” Now, often a scorner is one that’s got a major wound in their life, maybe from their childhood, often. You know, when you’re a child, your wood is a lot softer, easier to make marks on. The older you get, typically a little bit harder and firmer the wood is, if you will. But often they’ve got a major wound, and they don’t handle it in humility; they handle it in proud wrath. Those are key: this wound inside, this wrath, and get pride. You put those—proud plus wrath equals a severe critic. So I’m a scorner. I’m just—I’m overly tempted to be a scorner. This is a severe critic. There’s some pride in there, see?

And some people spend their life—can I, and I’m not trying to be mean—some have been through major, major wounds. I’m not trying to make light of that. But can I be very honest with you? You know, a little bit of this proud wrath is like, “I don’t deserve all that. If I did get what I deserve, I will go to hell. So the worst that I get down here is better than hell.” Yes, deal with it. I’m not saying it’s not real, these wounds, and you must deal with them. By the way, buried feelings don’t always die. You need to deal with that. But I don’t want to respond with proud wrath for years and years and years because that turns me into this scorner. Just look at some products of pride in their lives.

Number seven, we’re going to move on here. Number seven, let me just read them back for you real quickly: Contention—I got relationship or drama in all my life, you know? Or never get ahead in life. Can’t get close to the Lord. I have a lack of true love for people, deep love for people. Nobody can tell you what to do. You’re a scorner, or I’m always blaming everyone else.

Praise the Lord for Bill Johanon Sr. He’s out of town, and our jail ministry—men and ladies are doing a wonderful job. I am not part of that ministry. Can’t do everything. But for years, I visited many people in jail. Not always, but it’s interesting. A lot of times visiting in jails years ago—I preached in jails in Alabama and whatnot—but when I was in jail and the jail cell beside me—no, I’m joking about that. But not always, but a lot of times you’ll hear this: “Well, I didn’t do it; so-and-so, so-and-so.” And just, just, everyone else—I’m to blame. Always blaming everyone else, everyone else, everyone else. Relationship problems—it’s always blaming everyone.

Here’s this sad thing about pride. I’m going to move on. Here’s the sad thing about pride: Pride will ride you to the bottom. This is amazing. Maybe some of you have experienced it. We don’t deal with much here in this location, but we were on Murfreesboro Road. All three of our former buildings were on Murfreesboro Road. So we got a lot more of it—people just street people, whatnot, want money and different things. But I’m amazed sometimes. Street people—we often think they’re not intelligent. Sometimes they’re very intelligent people. Sometimes they have degrees, more than a four-year degree, graduate, and then master’s, the doctorate, and all. They’re like, “Wow!” And they’re living on the streets. But not always, but a lot of times you learn, you can’t tell them anything. They’re just very, very proud. And you’re like, “Wow, they’re living on the street, and yet they’re just—you can’t tell them a thing.” And pride will just ride you down. God resists the proud.

Now let’s get to the other side. Good. Praise the Lord, let’s get off this pride thing. Amen. How do you have grace? Number one: Get rid of your pride. Number two: What does it say here in First Peter 5? Would you please? First Peter 5, please. And that last part of verse number five, we’ll start there: “For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the—who? Humble.”

Notice the next verse: “Humble yourselves.” Can I time out for just a second here? God’s very capable of humbling you. We already read that: Pride goeth before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. But that’s not what God’s talking right there about God humbling you. He’s talking right there about you humbling yourself. “Humble yourselves.” Second Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves.” Humble yourself right there under the mighty—excuse me—“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”

Here’s the question: How do I humble myself? Can I say this? It is a choice. Did you notice that verse number five? He says, “Be clothed with humility.” You choose what you wear. Or if you got a good wife like me, on Sunday morning when I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off, she chooses what I wear. I’m thankful for that. That’s why I matched this morning. But even after that, I choose to put on—I choose. And you choose whether to be clothed. It’s your choice to be humble.

Let me give you some things. I want grace. Let me give you some things about how to humble yourselves, all right? Just very quickly. Number one: How do I humble myself? Number one: Admit that you and I admit that we battle pride. And he said, “Man, that’s kind of humbling.” Yeah. What we’re after. The honest, simple truth is we all battle pride, for it. And the best thing is, just on up to—you know, this is crazy, but it’s so true, we can get frightful about our humility, leave it up to us, amen. To me, I can do it.

I mentioned this a while back. It wasn’t a point I don’t mention this morning, but I just thought about it. Maybe six months a year ago, I was meeting just briefly with another preacher and whatnot, and he spent most of the time kind of bragging on himself, what all he’s done. And I kind of—you know, my pride wanted to engage, and I did not engage. I just let him talk about himself. Hey, you know what? I left that conversation proud about my humility. That’s honest truth. And the Holy Spirit said, “Yeah, you’re really humble, Paul.” The honest truth is we’ll all battle pride, every single one of us.

I love this quote. I love this from R. A. Torrey. Listen to it: “Faith gets the most. Love works the most, but humility keeps the most.” Oh, humility is so very important.

How can I humble myself? Number one: Admit I battle pride. Number two: Pray. Prayer is your open confession: “I need You, Lord.” It’s sad. I mean, honestly, it’s sad. And I’ll do this: I say, “Lord, I want to talk to You all day long.” At the end of the day, I think, “How much did I really pray?” Not much at all. Sad. And I can go and go and go and do and do and do, and I haven’t stopped to ask the Lord for His blessing as help for hours. Prayer is just—it’s me humbling myself: “Lord, I need You.” I want to humble myself. Pray. Someone said if you’re too busy to pray, you are just too busy.

By the way, allow God to change you through prayer. If you never, ever, ever have an answer to prayer, something’s not right. You ought to be getting something every once in a while through prayer. So maybe in your prayer life you need to allow God to change your heart. But praying is an act of humility: “Lord, I need You.”

It’s interesting, Philippians 2:8, speaking of Jesus Christ. Listen, this Philippians 2:8: “He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Jesus humbled Himself. Well, why do I have to humble myself? Well, obviously, you have pride, and another reason: Jesus humbled Himself. We’re all there. Don’t know—preachers on me. Man, I’m there too. But if I want grace, God giveth grace to the humble. Man, I need grace. God gives it. Notice He doesn’t say He loans it if you do this or that. He says, “I give it. I give grace to the humble.”

Bobby Robertson, one of my heroes, he’s in heaven now. He preached for us years ago. We’ve had many, many great men preach for us over the years, but maybe one of the most enjoyable men was Bobby Robertson. He came and preached for us maybe two nights. I think it’s two nights, and so three days he’s with us pretty much. And he pastored in Walkertown, North Carolina, for years and years. His church would average about 3,000—just an old-fashioned Baptist church who’d try to drive out of the city and down a little bit, a little bit, just to touch out a little cornfield, and then you see this big old church, and God had just blessed and used him greatly. But I loved it. He was just so down to earth, so humble to me—just someone very good at humbling themselves, Brother Bobby, because that’s what he liked to be called, Brother Bobby.

He comes to my mind, and a couple, three stories about Brother Bobby, and I’m going to finish it out after those stories. I won’t say how long; it’ll be after those stories, I promise to that now.

I introduced Brother Bobby, I think the first time he preached here, just two nights. And I said something along that line. I said, “Boy, pastors the church of about 3,000.” And he got to preach after that, and he said, “We didn’t have 3,000 in church Sunday.” I can’t remember the exact number. He said, “But I don’t want you to think we had—we didn’t have 3,000. So we’ve been a little down here lately.” I was pretty humbling for a preacher to say that. Most of us are trying to pat our numbers. He brought the numbers down. I was impressed by that.

Two other stories about Brother Bobby. That last morning I was coming to pick him up at the hotel over here by Cracker Barrel, and I was going to pick him up. I was going to take him to breakfast. You know, a younger preacher—I was, “Man, Brother Bob, we’ll take him wherever you want to go.” “Where are you going to go?” “To Cracker Barrel right there.” I mean, Cracker Barrel, come on, especially back in the day. I mean, they got some good food there and black-eyed peas, turnip greens, and chicken strips with honey mustard. You can put them in there. Anybody getting hungry out there? Brother Garrett’s about to mute me back there. Let’s go eat, man, you know.

And I came to the motel to pick him up, going to go breakfast with him and take him to the airport. He’s going to fly back home. And he’s going to preach at his home church, whatnot. And he said, “Oh, Brother Paul.” He said, “He said, Paul.” He said, “Man, I got a good breakfast here. I guess we can legally do it. You’ve been paying the bill. Let’s just eat here.” I said, “All right. This is where you want to eat.” We just said, “I had a free breakfast.” I know. Wow. I like that. Just down to earth, humble.

One last story about Brother Bob. Just God gives grace to the humble. It was not during those days he was here with us, but I don’t know if it was before or after I can remember, but I went to Cracker Barrel down in Murfreesboro. You can tell I kind of like Cracker Barrel, amen. And I think my wife was with me. Somebody says, “That’s a good preacher right there,” you know. And we walked in Cracker Barrel down there. I think my wife was—if I remember right, she was. And I didn’t think it was the other—no, I’m teaching. I’m teasing. Anybody have a couch from me except—I’m really in trouble. But we walked—I don’t know where that one came from. I better be careful of my tongue for sure.

But we walked in Cracker Barrel, and there was a table full—I don’t know, I would guess—eight preachers sitting there. I know most of them, maybe all of them. I don’t know. And they’re there. And Brother Bobby was one of the preachers there. And I know maybe every one of the preachers I knew—it’s been years ago. And for sure, Brother Bobby’s church was much bigger many times over than every person at that table, the church he pastored, by far. And not only that, but he was the older preacher there. And yet there was one preacher there—I know him; he’s not a bad man—but he’s one of these men just got to be the loudest and in charge, and, you know, and the—everybody’s kind of paying attention. He’s a leader.

And I watched that other preacher sitting at the end of the table, kind of like the head part of the table, and he was controlling the conversation. And I watched Brother Bob. I stayed there and talked to him for a while. Brother Bob was sitting over on the side. It didn’t bother him a bit that somebody else was getting all the accolades and the attention and the laughter and everything else. He just sat there quietly. It kind of looked like he was glad not to be in the limelight. I can eat. Amen.

And I was impressed. Pastored a much larger church times over every by the table, the oldest, the senior pastor. And he just humbly sat there and enjoyed the position he was put in and ate his breakfast. God giveth grace unto the humble.

You know, the only way someone’s saved is by grace. You know the verse, Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace are ye saved.” Yeah, that’s the only way. Romans 3:24: “being justified freely by His grace.” Ephesians 2:5—by grace are ye saved? 2:1—2:9, excuse me: “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.” It’s the only way someone is saved: by grace.

Then I want you to notice something else about those verses I just read. Notice the term “saved.” Saved. I’m a little bit disappointed at our end time in America how muddy the water is about are you truly born again saved or not? It’s just so muddy in our day and time. And I want you to note in the Bible, it uses this term “saved.” It’s a Bible term. There’s no one in between; you’re either saved or you’re lost.

Our restrooms at the house—my wife was remodeling them, and I put some of these LED lights in there, and I put new light switches. Now these, you know, most of these light switches just—it’s either on or off, but those light switches, you can slide it up and it gets brighter. You slide it down. Salvation is not like this: “Well, I’m working on it. I think so. Maybe so. Maybe one day, I don’t know.” It’s not a slide switch. It’s either on or off, saved or lost. I understand what people are trying to say when you have a relationship with the Lord, but that’s kind of like a slide. Man, that can mean a whole lot of things. Saved or lost? Are you born again? Are you safe? For by grace are you saved? You see how definite it is?

There’s a definite moment when someone is saved. They’re born again. They’re born of the family of God. How do you get there? By grace. How do you get grace? Humble. Can’t be good enough. I’m a sinner. I need a Savior. And there’s a moment, a definite moment, John 5:24, “pass from death into life.” Boom, I’m saved. Born of the family of God, a child of God, saved.

There’s a preacher. He’s talking to a 10-year-old girl. And he asked this little girl, “Are you a Christian?” She said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Are you saved?” She said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Well, how do you get saved?” “Well, I guess by being good.” And he said, “Well, how good do you have to be?” And she said, “Awfully good.” And the preacher said, “Well, how awfully good do you have to be?” And she said, “Awfully, awfully good.” So the preacher said, “Are you that good?” She said, “No.” And the preacher said, “Well, I’m not that good either.” Her eyes got real big. “You’re not?” She said, “Well, how can I get saved?” And he said, “Not by you being good, but by Jesus being good, and you put your belief in Jesus’ goodness.”

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads bowed, eyes are closed. Just for a moment here. Maybe you hear this morning, you say, “Preacher, I want to work at being humble. I admit it. I battle this thing of pride, and I want to work at this thing. I want the grace of God.” Preacher, I admit it; sometimes I have pride, and I’m going to work at humbling myself. God spoke to my heart about that. If that’s you this morning, heads bowed, eyes closed, just lift your hand. I want to work at this thing of humbling myself. God bless you. God bless you. I battle pride. I’m going to work at this thing of humbling myself. So very important. God bless you. Many, many, many hands. Thank you for being honest with the Lord and His working in your heart. Wonderful thing. Thank you so much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear this morning, you said, “Preacher, I have been saved.” There was a time in my life when I went to Jesus Christ, and I put my full faith in Jesus to get me to heaven. I knew it was nothing I can do; it was what Jesus did. And I trusted Christ as my Savior. I’ve been saved more than once again. I know I’m going to heaven. If that’s you this morning, heads bowed, eyes closed, just lift your hand to the preacher: “I know that. I know that. I trusted Jesus.” He’s a little wonderful—many, many hands, many hands. Thank you so very much. Thank you so very much. You can put your hands down.

Some did not raise your hands. I appreciate you. But if you hear this morning and you say, “You know, I—I don’t know that I am saved,” or maybe you say, “I know I’m not saved. I’ve never had a time when I was saved. I put my full faith in Christ. I was born again. I need to settle this thing. I need to get saved.” If that’s you right there where you’re sitting, your heart and your mind: “Preacher, that’s me. I need to have a time when I know I truly went to Jesus. Put all my faith in Jesus alone. I trusted fully in Christ.” If that’s you, you get there. You say, “I know I’m a sinner. I understand there’s a penalty on my sin, death and hell. I believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again. I need to get saved.” If that’s you right there where you said, your heart, would you call on Jesus right there? Tell Jesus, “I admit it, I’m a sinner. I understand there’s a penalty on my sin, death and hell. But Jesus, I believe You were good enough. You never sinned one time. And I want to trust in You. I want to humble myself and come say, ‘I need Your grace.’ Would You save me? Thank You, Jesus, for saving me.”

Our heads bowed, our eyes are closed. If you’re there and you said, “Preacher, I never have, but I just prayed that and asked Jesus to save me.” If that’s you this morning, you slip your hand to a preacher: “I just asked Jesus to save me.” Anybody like that? Never have? Just asked Jesus to be my personal Savior? Just asked to be my—? If anybody like that, anybody like that?

All Christians, as we grow in the Christian life, we grow in grace. How do you get grace? Humble, humble. Would you please stand? We won’t be long. We’ll take a moment and spend some time with the Lord. You’ll be obedient as He guides you. Let’s pray, and you’ll be obedient to Him. Father, thank You that You give grace. We don’t have to be all this other—other, just humble. Help me, Lord, help us to grow in getting rid of our pride, just humbling ourselves before You. Thank You for the grace You’ll give. Lesser people in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Would you be obedient? Just spend some time with the Lord. If you want, you can come to an old-fashioned altar. You’ll be obedient. He wants you just to do what He wants. Come seek Him. So it’s a little humbling to come to an old-fashioned altar. That’s the point, friend. He gives grace to the humble, and I need that grace. You say, “You’re the preacher, you got it all together.” Friend, you don’t have the slightest idea. I need that grace. It seems like more than ever, all the time, day by day, moment by moment. He’ll give it. Jesus earned it already. He gives it to the humble. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient. Isn’t that just an amazing statement? He humbled Himself.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar -＂How to Get Grace＂- Sunday AM 07⧸06⧸2025 [f89IUCOWQ7o]