The Church in "Grace Bible Church"

[0:00] with our message for today. We've been talking about the name of our church. This is Grace Bible Church. And last week we talked about the second word in the name of our church, Bible.

[0:16] And some people were confused. They said, well, that's the second word. Aren't you supposed to start with the first word? Well, I don't have to. I thought it was, I thought as far as logic is concerned, you know, the Bible is the foundation of our faith. Christ is the foundation, but as far as a written record, the Bible is where we turn to, to know about Jesus Christ, who is the foundation, to know what God would have for us. It's his instruction book for us. And so we talked about the Bible being the foundation of Christianity. It's the foundation that we use. It's what we use in this church for any kind of truth that we preach. We don't just come up with ideas that we think are cool, different philosophies that we think are good ideas. We search the scriptures for what God would have us know. So we talked about the Bible as our foundation.

[1:19] Today we're going to talk about this first word, grace. So Grace Bible Church is a Bible church. church. People bring their Bibles to church. Sometimes they look like this. And sometimes, you know, it's hard to tell, you know, if people are reading the Bibles or they check in Facebook. I don't know. But that's okay. I think it's totally legitimate. I actually love this because I've got 10 Bibles on here and different translations and commentaries. It's pretty incredible. I would actually highly recommend it if you have access or opportunity to use technology in that way. But we're a Bible church. People bring their Bibles. We teach out of the Bible. But we are also a grace church. A grace church. And what does that mean? And it can be confusing because are there many grace churches out there? There are a lot, right? That, in fact, in some ways you might think the word grace is somewhat overused in the naming of churches. But I think it's for a reason, right?

[2:26] Because grace is a huge part of our faith. We could call ourselves faith Bible church. And that would be legitimate, right? Faith is an important part of Christianity. We could call ourselves hope Bible church because we have a future hope in the coming of Jesus Christ and a future hope of heaven and living with God forever. And that would be a legitimate thing to call our church. We could call ourselves love Bible church, right? That might sound a little weird. But love is a huge part of our faith.

[3:06] It's about Christianity. Loving our neighbor as ourselves. Loving the Lord. We could call ourselves Christ Bible church. Jesus Christ, the center of our faith. That would be legitimate. We could call ourselves law Bible church. But that would be very confusing. So those are all good things. Even the law is a good thing. And we'll talk more about that in a second. A very good reason why we don't call ourselves law Bible church. But grace really is the center of Christianity, the center of our faith.

[3:44] And really, it's the one thing that makes Christianity unique from other religions. Do other religions have faith? They do, right? Things that you should believe. Do other religions have hope? Things that they expect?

[4:01] Yeah, they do. Do other religions have love? They sure do. But grace, and we'll talk about this more in a second, because I think in some ways, most religions have grace. But in the very specific way the Bible talks about, Christianity is completely unique. Our salvation by grace, where God offers us something for free, that we just have to believe and receive a free gift without doing anything completely unique to Christianity. You don't find it in Islam. You don't find it in Mormonism. You don't even find it in Judaism, which is the historical part of our faith. So I think it's appropriate. Grace is a great word to describe any church, and specifically ours.

[4:52] We make a distinction here at Grace Bible Church about the different ages. If you read the Bible, there are different, we call them dispensations, but eras. Sometimes you might use the word administration, which is actually maybe a synonym for what the word dispensation means. But God dealt with people at different times in different ways, and had different ways that people would come to him to be his people. And in the Old Testament, that was through the law of Moses. Today, we call this the age of grace, because we live according to principles of grace. That's what we're going to talk about today. What is grace, anyway? So there's a definition for the word grace. And if you look up in the dictionary, there's a Greek word that means charis. And you know, sometimes looking up Greek words can be helpful, and sometimes they're not as helpful. So the Greek word charis is what we use to translate the word grace. And it simply means goodwill, loving kindness, so kindness, or favor. And we typically use the word grace in everyday English in that way, right? You show grace to somebody means you show somebody kindness, right? Loving kindness, or favor, or goodwill. And so grace is a good word. It's a great way to translate that word in the Greek. But there's a huge mistake that we can make in understanding our faith and understanding what grace is, is to think that grace, the kind of Christian grace that's so important to us as a church, and to much of the body of Christ, to think that grace is just its definition.

[6:49] And it's that way with other words. One of the things I thought about was the White House, right? What is the White House? Well, the White House is an important building that represents authority, and not just authority, but there's a history to it, right? It represents freedom. It represents human rights. There's a lot of things built into this word White House. But the word White House is just a compound word, white and house. And if you just look at the definition, it just means it's a house that's white. It's painted white. That's it. And is there anything special about that? So if you just look at the word White House as just its definition, there's nothing special. I mean, houses are interesting, and white houses are interesting. It's a great color, right? But if you think that the White House is just a White House, you're going to be missing a lot. It's the same way with grace. If we think that grace is just the definition of the word, then we're going to be missing out on a lot. So what does grace mean beyond just its definition?

[8:08] Well, to look at this, we're going to open up to the book of Ephesians. So if you have your Bible, whether a paper one or a digital one, open up to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. And this is a passage that I think every believer would benefit from memorizing. This is a passage that tells us so much about our faith, about Christianity. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And it says this, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

[8:54] Not of works, lest anyone should boast. Has anybody ever memorized that before? Yeah, lots of us here. A great Bible verse to memorize. A great Bible verse to put in our hearts. The Bible talks about putting the word of God in our hearts. Memorizing can help us put God's word in our heart. This is a central idea to Christianity and a central idea for this church. So let's talk, let's kind of dissect this a bit. For by grace you have been saved. Grace is a means of salvation, a means of being reconciled to God. He says, you have been saved through faith, by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves.

[9:43] So he shares what it's not, right? What it is and what it's not. What it's not is of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So grace is a gift. And then he says this, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So it is a free gift. And it's not of works. It's not of yourself.

[10:07] And so grace is something very, very specific. God is gracious. Is that true? And has he always been gracious? Or is this a new thing? Has God always showed loving kindness? If you go back to the Old Testament, some people, I think, get this idea. You go back to the Old Testament and God was kind of upset all the time and angry and not very nice. And then in the New Testament, he got counseling and, you know, became more kind and loving. And, you know, people kind of get that general idea. But if you go back to the Old Testament, there's lots and lots of not only indication of God showing love and kindness and favor, but also people declaring, right? You look, read in the Psalms and declares God's loving kindness and tender mercies. God has been gracious from the very beginning of creation. And so grace is something, when we just look at the definition, graciousness, love, kindness, favor is something that God has shown from the very beginning. But this, where we are saved by grace, not of works, that's new. That's something that changed.

[11:39] I want to talk a little bit more about this. There's a verse, well, actually, we won't turn there quite yet. The term gift of God, or that phrase, a gift of God, for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Grace is something that's given for free. It's a gift. We all have received gifts. We know what gifts are like. But do you ever pay for a gift? No. If you do, is it a gift anymore? No, it's not a gift. A gift is something that is free.

[12:13] That's what grace is. That is what God's gift of salvation is to us. I'd like to maybe give an illustration. So I know that when I was younger, especially, I newly had a family. I had a wife and I had a child. In fact, I think this was, Ethan was born and Abby had just been born. So I've got two kids. Mom's staying home with the kids.

[12:40] And I got to figure out how to put food on the table for all of these people. And when you're a young man, sometimes that can be really hard. It's a struggle.

[12:52] I remember we lived in Michigan at the time. And I had done some work for one guy, but then that work kind of dried up. And I was left without having anything to do. So there was a guy at church who owned a lawn care or, yeah, landscaping. There we go. A landscaping business. And he offered me a job.

[13:16] He offered me a job. And I was so grateful. When you don't have a job and you got a lot of responsibilities, somebody offered you a job, that's a really big deal. And it was to me in my early 20s.

[13:27] And so he offered me that job and it was a way for me to provide for my family. And we would call that even, we might even call it a gift, right? A gift that he's giving me a job. And we would even call it gracious. We would say that's a kind thing to do. We would say that that's showing me favor.

[13:46] And it was, it was showing me favor. It was a gracious thing for me to do. But here's the point I want to make. If he provided me that job, if he gave me that job and I didn't show up the next morning and cut the grass and trim the hedges and do all the things that he asked me to do, or one of his crew members asked me to do, would I keep that job? Nope. He would say, sorry, next, right? That was a job where I was required to show up every day. And even though it was a kind thing for him to offer it, there was an obligation on my part where I had to show up. I had to keep working. I had to do the work that he required of me. And I think we make this mistake in Christianity.

[14:37] We have in the Old Testament, God offering a people, the Jews, to be his special people.

[14:48] And it was a gracious thing that God did. Let me, let me go back here. Turn to Romans 4.4. Because this illustration that I gave isn't something that I just made up out of thin air. It's actually an illustration that Paul makes in the book of Romans. So Romans 4. Let's start. Let's see, where can we start?

[15:31] We'll just start with verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, say that Abraham, our father, is found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. When somebody goes to their job and they work, and their employer gives them a paycheck. And so many of us here have experienced that, right? You go to your job. A week later, two weeks later, you get a paycheck. Is that a gift? No, it's a debt. In fact, after you spend two weeks or a week, sometimes, you know, some people get paid on different, different ways. But after you've worked for a week, your employer owes you the paycheck because you had that agreement, right? The agreement was, I work for you and you pay me X number of dollars an hour or whatever it might be, whatever the agreement might be. And so it's not a gift. It's a wage. It's a debt that is owed to you. And then in verse five, it says, but to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

[17:04] Grace is not law. And when I say that to many people, that sounds absurdly obvious that grace is not law. But there's a lot of people who, who tend to mix the two grace and law.

[17:23] Turn to Exodus and we're going to look at when the law was given to Moses. Exodus verse or chapter 19.

[17:35] If any of you have read through this part of Exodus, Exodus 19 and 20, about the giving of the law, was this a time where everybody was happy and excited and there was rainbows and sunshine?

[17:59] Or is it actually very different up on that mountain, Mount Sinai? What was, when people looked up at Mount Sinai, what did they see? Did they see a rainbow? What did they see? Dark clouds. It wasn't white clouds.

[18:16] They were dark clouds. Yeah. And fire. And it was, it was something that they trembled at. And that was the giving, that was the giving of the law. But God kind of made a deal with these people, the Israelites.

[18:35] Exodus 19. We'll look at verse, start at verse four. This is God speaking.

[18:46] You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people. For all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And then he says to Moses, these are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. And that's what he did. Moses came down from the mountain.

[19:18] Hmm. Scary place. Later on, God offers to the people of Israel that they can go up if they'd like. And the people of Israel say, no, Moses, you go up and you just tell us what God says and we're good with that. We'd rather not go up there ourselves. In verse eight, the people respond to what God offered. It says this, then all the people answered together and they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. So God had an offer for these people. He said, I've got this, this offer for you. I'm going to make you a special people on the earth, a people above any other people, a people special to me. You're going to be my people. You're going to be considered God's people. But there's a condition. And the condition is I have this covenant, this law that I'm going to give you. And you need to keep it. And if you keep it, then you will be a special people to me. Verse five again, if you will indeed obey, look a few words later, then you shall be a special treasure. Highly conditional. If you obey, if you keep this covenant, then you will be my special people. Well, what if I don't keep your covenant? Well, he doesn't say here, but we find this out later in the law itself. So when we look at this deal that God made with Israel, this was a pretty sweet deal, right? This was a people who were not God's people and God made them his people. He said, I'm going to let you be my special people. And here's the deal. I'm going to give you this law. You keep it. And if you keep it, then you will be my special people. You'll be my children. They didn't have an offer like that before. And now they had that offer and they decided we're going to take it.

[21:39] Was this a gracious thing for God to do? Was this God showing favor? Yes. And so just looking at the word grace, this was a gracious thing for God to do, to offer that if you keep my law, you can be my special people. But again, we make a huge mistake if we think that the tablets of stone, this covenant that was brought down from Mount Sinai and great tremblings and thunder and lightning and dark clouds, if we think that is the grace that Paul was speaking about in Ephesians.

[22:16] It's not. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Let's turn to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 3.

[22:29] We'll see the contrast a little bit more here. Grace is a means of salvation, a means of being reconciled to God. But it's even more than that.

[22:52] It's related. But grace is also God's righteousness being accounted to us. God counting us righteous.

[23:03] And this is what we read in Romans chapter 3, verse 21. Romans 3, verse 21. Actually, let's go back because we'll provide a little bit of contrast here. Let's look at verse 19.

[23:15] Now we know that whatever the law says, this is the law of Moses that we just read about, this deal God made with Israel. It says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. That was actually the purpose of the law, was to show people that they're guilty. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So God made a deal with Israel. If you keep this law, you can be a special people to me. In fact, in the law itself, in the book of Deuteronomy, it says this, and you don't have to turn there, but in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 25, he says this, then it will be right, this is Moses speaking, then it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God as he has commanded us. So we'll be a special people and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all of these commandments.

[24:32] Did he say just a few, just the ones that you like? Was that what it was? No. The law says you need to keep all of the commandments. That was the deal. It wasn't just, you know, pick out your favorite commandments, the ones that are easy. The deal was all of them. And if you do that, then the result will, you will be considered righteous. And my question is, how did that work out for Israel?

[24:59] Anybody ever read the Bible in the Old Testament? Was Israel a, were they considered a righteous people? Or did they tend towards all kinds of depravity and worship of false gods and all kinds of things that were considered horrible, moral evils? It didn't really, it didn't really work out.

[25:23] It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all of these commands. So I want to contrast that. And we just read this in verse 19. Now we know what the law, excuse me, Romans 3, 19.

[25:34] Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. That's what the law does. It shows us our guilt. Verse 21 says this, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed.

[25:56] Notice the beginning. But now something different has happened. There's a change. There was the law, which is something that God showed his favor. He showed his grace, his loving kindness toward people by giving them the law, the Jews. He gave them the law.

[26:14] That was gracious. It was kind. But now he's doing something else. He's still showing favor, but now he's giving us a different means of becoming his children, a different means to salvation, a different means to becoming righteous. It's different from the law. But now there was the law back then, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law, not in the law. It's not together with the law. It's not that we mix these two together. We separate them apart from the law is revealed.

[26:50] Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace. This is a description of God's grace.

[27:15] But again, it's not just favor. This is a very specific program in which God offers salvation, reconciliation, reconciliation, and righteousness for free. You don't have to show up every day like that job and trim those hedges. He just gives it for free. His righteousness is ours if we just reach out and accept it.

[27:47] It's unique to the New Testament. It's unique even past the New Testament because we know that the law was in effect even through the ministry of Jesus.

[28:03] The grace is founded in the blood of Christ, which came later. Our righteousness that we have through Christ is a free gift. There's nothing that we have to do.

[28:19] And there are benefits that come along with having righteousness that's free. You know, you can work towards becoming more righteous. Is that true? You can do things and it will make you more righteous. But one of the interesting things about the righteousness that God provides is that it's the kind of righteousness that's perfect. It's flawless. You're not just partly righteous or mostly righteous, but in Christ, we are 100% righteous. And the Bible talks about us being that way in Christ. Under law, you have to keep on working, keep on working, keep on working to try to increase your righteousness. But under grace, it's all done. It's complete. Our righteousness is complete.

[29:14] Is it easy to live by grace? You know, there is something in us where it's hard to receive gifts. Does anybody have trouble receiving gifts sometimes?

[29:27] It can be, right? Somebody does something so generous for you, especially the more generous it is, the harder it is to receive. If it's something small, it's like, okay, thanks for the cool coin or whatever it might be.

[29:41] But when somebody does something so, so tremendous that it just puts us in awe, it can be difficult to receive that gift.

[29:52] In Colossians 2.20, it says this, Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations?

[30:08] Regulations has to do with the law. So he's saying, why are you going back to the law when you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world? And I think there's a key there.

[30:21] That's how the world works. You know, have you ever heard the phrase, there's no such thing as a free lunch? Right? Somebody offers you a free lunch, you know, usually they're selling something, right?

[30:33] And everybody been to one of those timeshare things? Oh my goodness. I mean, people will offer you more than a free lunch, but then you've got to listen to their pitch.

[30:43] And so there's always a catch. There's always something that you have to do. It seems like there's nothing in this life that you get for free.

[30:56] And so it seems to go against the basic principles of the world in which we need to earn the things that we get. And I would say, too, that this is something that's especially hard for men.

[31:09] You know, God designed men and women to be different. Can I get an amen about that? Yeah. And praise the Lord for the difference because if there wasn't a difference, life would be, well, not just boring, but I think a mess.

[31:25] God made men and women different. And if you're a little bit perceptive, and I think this is true, that women seem to thrive when they're loved and they get a lot of affection and attention.

[31:40] And women just kind of come to life. And it's not like love and attention don't impact men. But it seems to me that the thing that really makes men come alive is being useful.

[31:55] Does anybody, does that seem to ring true? When you've got something that you're building, that you're accomplishing, that you're doing, you're making a difference, you're making a change, you're building a business or building a career or doing some kind of ministry where you're changing minds, trying to change the laws through politics, whatever it might be.

[32:14] Those are things that make men just feel like they're thriving in life. And so I think especially for men, living by grace, resting in God's grace is especially hard.

[32:28] But it's something that God wants us to do. He wants us to rest in his grace, not just to become saved by grace, but to live by grace as well.

[32:39] In Galatians chapter three, verse three, Paul gets really animated. This whole, the whole first three chapters, I think of the book of Galatians, you can tell Paul is really upset.

[32:54] And there's a question with this whole grace thing. I mean, there's lots of doctrines in the Bible. You know, is this one really that big of a deal? I mean, if some people decide they want to mix law with grace and kind of just do both, I mean, hey, why not, right?

[33:07] When you read in Galatians, Paul says, no way, Jose. It's not law and grace, it's grace alone. But he says this in chapter three, verse three, he said, are you so foolish?

[33:24] Having begun in the spirit, you are now being made perfect by the flesh. And the big idea is here, you were saved by the grace of God. God offered this gift and you accepted it for free.

[33:36] No works. I don't have to do anything. But then now you think, well, if I'm going to become a better Christian, becoming a better Christian, it means that I have to put myself under the law and I'll be made perfect by submitting myself to the ordinances of the law.

[33:54] And he says, that's foolish. And it doesn't work. Did the law work for Israel? Did it make them better believers? No. They ended up, they really just exposed their lack.

[34:15] So grace is a major theme throughout the New Testament, specifically in Paul's epistles. We see in Galatians where Paul confronts Peter. Now that's a plot twist, right?

[34:28] In the Bible. Paul confronts Peter because he undermines the grace of God. The Galatians are called foolish. He even calls them bewitched.

[34:40] Bewitched. I think it's important for us as Christians to understand how important grace is. Part of that is maintaining a reverence and an awe for how amazing grace is.

[34:58] We have that song, right? Amazing grace. It's a favorite of so many people. Singing about how amazing God's grace is. We can get used to it, right? As believers, we know what Christ did.

[35:12] But I think we need to remind ourselves over and over again, and we do that when we sing these songs about what Christ did for us. You know, did Jesus have to die for the sins of the world?

[35:23] Was there some kind of obligation? Would he have been considered unrighteous or unjust or wicked if he hadn't died for the sins of the world? No. In fact, in a lot of different ways, he should have done that, right?

[35:39] I mean, what a mess. You look at the flood and the judgment that came on of the earth because there was so much evil and wickedness. And that has been the story of the world for ages.

[35:52] So much sin and evil. He could have just said, forget about it. I'm not going to mess with these people anymore. But he didn't. Instead, he offered himself as a sacrifice for us.

[36:08] The only thing that God owes us, I think, that we could say is he owes us justice. But is that what we want? That we want just justice? No, in fact, Christ dying on the cross was an act of justice.

[36:22] In order for him to offer us grace, he had to, we might call it, appease justice. And so it was the just, Jesus, dying for the unjust to make a way for us to have access to his grace.

[36:45] I'll kind of finish up with this. Each one of us will be tempted each and every day to turn from grace, to put our confidence instead of in what Christ did for us, to put our confidence in ourselves, to try to work for our position with God, to try to make ourselves more spiritual, to try to make ourselves more sanctified, to try to make ourselves more worthy of him.

[37:31] And that's the basic principles of the world. That seems to make sense. But we have to resist that temptation every single day. Don't do it.

[37:46] Don't set down the grace of God and pick up a life of works, even for a moment. We want to put 100% of our confidence for our salvation, for our union with Christ, our union with God, for our relationship with him to be in what Christ accomplished for us, what he did, not in what we can do to draw ourselves closer to him.

[38:14] There's a verse in Galatians that had a tremendous impact on me when I was struggling with this years ago. How much do I trust in the grace of God and what he did and how much do I need to try to do to become, whether it's a better Christian, and we should become better Christians, right?

[38:35] It's true, we should, but to try to earn his favor. And I came across this passage, and if you have a Bible, turn to it, Galatians.

[38:50] And it kind of turned my life upside down, and you know, sometimes you read a verse a hundred times, and then there's that one time, and it just jumps out at you and turns everything upside down.

[39:03] Things become clear. That's what happened with this passage. Galatians chapter 2. We'll start with verse 19 to provide just a little bit of context.

[39:22] For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[39:43] Living by grace is a life of faith. It's a life of not seeing with our own eyes, because that's what, when we look in the mirror, right? We see, when we look in the mirror, do we see a righteous person always?

[39:57] No. A lot of times we see a pretty icky person. But we do, we need to see with the eyes of faith that I am identified with Christ. I live in him. We don't see that with our eyes.

[40:07] We see that with our physical eyes. We see that with the eyes of faith. But this last verse jumped out at me. I do not set aside the grace of God.

[40:21] For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. And did Christ die in vain?

[40:35] Was what he did without power, without accomplishment, or did it accomplish more than we ever could?

[40:47] Did it do everything? That's what Christ's death did for us. It did everything. And we need to think about it this way. When we set aside, even for a moment, when we set aside the grace of God and try to earn God's favor, try to earn his salvation, we're setting aside God's grace.

[41:13] And we're saying, the death that Christ died wasn't enough. It did a lot, but it wasn't enough. And we want to hold God's grace up in the death that he died for us, which is what grace is.

[41:33] That's that offer. He died for us. He died for our sins. And he offers that for free. And it's free forever. Do not set aside the grace of God, whether for a week or a year or a day or even a moment, but always put 100% of our confidence in what Christ did for us.

[42:01] And finally, this is the gospel. We talk a lot about the gospel. What is the gospel? The gospel is this message, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.

[42:12] Christ died for our sins. He offers us a free gift. How do you receive it? There may be people in this room who have never received the gift of God's grace.

[42:27] I always tell people there's two things that you have to do to receive that gift. One, you have to humble yourself. This is one of those things, just like with any gift, you have to say, you know what?

[42:43] I need it. Those are the gifts that are especially hard, the ones that you really, really need. If you get something that you don't really need, that's not a big deal. But when you really need something, like that job that I talked about, man, I really want to, I feel like I'm a failure.

[43:01] And you know what? You're a failure, right? We've failed in so many ways over and over and over again, and we need something. So we need to humble ourselves and say, know what?

[43:13] I am. I'm a failure. I need God's gift. That's the first step. And the second step, the Bible talks about faith. Trust in Him. Put your confidence in His gift, not in what you can do, but in what He did for you.

[43:30] And if you do that, tell God, I'm putting my confidence in you. The gift is yours for free. Don't try to add works. Don't try to add things to it.

[43:42] Just say, God, I want your gift. And that's it. Is there anything better than that? Absolutely not. If you haven't done that before, you can do that today.

[43:57] In fact, we're going to finish up with prayer. Father, thank you so much for your gift of grace that you have given us. it's hard to humble ourselves to realize, you know, we're not that great.

[44:16] Some of us are better at being great than others. Some of us are terrible at being great. We're kind of basket cases. But regardless of whether we're good at keeping the law or whether we really stink at it, we can put our confidence in you that we're righteous because of what you did.

[44:33] that there's anybody, Father, in this room that has not done that. I ask that you would move in their heart that they would do that today. As you say in the scriptures, today is the day of salvation.

[44:45] It's not something that we put off for tomorrow. It's something that we address and we take care of today. You are willing. You say that anybody who comes to you in faith, you will never cast them out.

[44:55] You'll never turn them away. Thank you that you've done that for so many here. We ask that you would help us who trust in you to trust in your grace each and every day, moment by moment.

[45:10] In Jesus' name, Amen.