The Wonder, Surprise, and Struggle of Grace
2025-04-27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j8acmXUW74

. . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. I am very excited and very glad to be able to worship with you this morning. Before we pray, I'd like to share with you the words from Galatians chapter 1 As Paul greets the church, I would like to sort of greet us today as we begin. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the grace and the peace that you have brought to us through your Son. We ask this morning as we worship, as we read Scripture together, as we gather to the table, as we pray, as we worship, as we open your word, whether upstairs together or in the kids' classes downstairs, may you make evident to us the power and the goodness of your grace that we would be transformed and that we would find peace in you.

Be with us during our service this morning. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would be standing with me, we're going to begin by reading from the 145th Psalm, and then we are going to move right into This Is Our God. So if you would, read with me. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. This is the word of the Lord.

Remember those walls that we called sin and shame They were like prisons that we couldn't escape But he came and he died and he rose Those walls are rubble now Remember those giants we called death and grave They were like mountains that stood in our way But He came and He died and He rose Those giants are dead now This is our God, this is who He is He loves us This is our God, this is what He does He saves us He bore the cross, beat the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus Remember that fear that took our breath away Faith so weak that we could barely pray But He heard every word, every whisper Now those altars in the wilderness Tell the story of His faithfulness Never once did He fail

And He never will This is our God, this is who He is He loves us This is our God This is what He does He saves us For the cross Feed the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God King Jesus This is our God This is who He is He loves us This is our God This is what He does He saves us He bore the cross, beat the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus He bore the cross, beat the grave Let heaven and earth proclaim This is our God, King Jesus

Christ is my firm foundation The rock on which I stand When everything around me shaken I've never been more glad I put my faith in Jesus, cause he's never let me down. He's faithful through generations, so why would he fail now? He won't. He won't. I've still got joy in chaos I've got peace that makes no sense So I won't be going under I'm not held by my own strength Cause I built my life on Jesus He's never let me down He's faithful in every season So why would he fail now? He won't He won't He won't fail He won't fail Rain came, wind blew But my house was built on you I'll say with you I'm gonna make it through Rain came, wind blew But my house was built on you I'm safe with you

I'm gonna make it through Yeah, I'm gonna make it through Cause I'm standing strong on you Oh, I'm gonna make it through Cause my house is built on you Christ is my firm foundation The rock on which I stand When everything around me is shaken I've never been more glad But I put my faith in Jesus Cause he's never let me down He's faithful through generations So why would he fail now? He won't He won't He won't fail He won't fail He won't fail

Christ is sure, steady and in the fury of the storm. In the winds of doubt blow through me and my sins are all been torn. In the suffering, in the sorrow, when my singing hopes are few, I will hold this to the end which I'll never know.

Christ ensured in steady anger While the tempest rages on In temptation It seems the night is warm Deeper still then goes the anger Though I just at least stand acute I will hold first to the end, it shall never be one.

A nice and strong and steady anger Through the floods of me Hopeless on now, oh my soul Now lift your eyes to Calvary This my ballast of assurance Sees love forever I will hold fast to the anger And it shall never be removed Christ is short and steady anger As we face the weight of death When these trials give way to glory, as we draw our final breath, we will cross that great horizon, clouds behind them, life's secure in the calm, be the bed for the storms that we bring. Christ is sure of salvation Ever faithful, ever true The world fast to the anchor It shall never be

Spurgeon once said in the midst of trial that I have learned to kiss the wave that cast me upon the rock of Christ. And as we prepare to come to the table this morning, I want to read first from Matthew, the 27th chapter, and then two verses that we just sang about from the book of Hebrews. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. And Jesus is quoting from the 22nd Psalm. God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran, took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed

and gave it to him to drink. But others said, let us wait to see whether Elijah will come to save him. And in his darkest hour, not just in spiritual darkness, but also physical darkness, pointing to the darkness of Jesus carrying the weight of our sin, people are surmising and they're questioning and in some cases mocking. But it's in that moment, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. We get a note of what happens in verse 51. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. And in the Jewish temple, which was a place of separation, depending on where you were from, but depending on whether you were a man or woman, determined how close you could get into the temple. Priests could enter into the inner courts and into the temple itself,

but only the high priest could enter into the most holy place, and Him only once a year, and Him only with the blood that takes away sins. And so standing between the place that any priest could go and standing between the holy of holies was a curtain. And when we think of curtains, we might think of something like this. The curtain that separated the holy place and the holy of holies was several inches thick. It's said that when it was mounted, it was so heavy because of its thickness that it took 300 priests in the construction of the temple to be able to hang this curtain because of the weight of it. And when the priest enters into the holy of holies, he doesn't sort of go through and part the curtain, but because of its weight,

he goes to the edge and sort of heaves back apart and goes in behind the curtain with the blood on the Day of Atonement to take away sin. But as Jesus on the cross cries, it is finished, and gives His Spirit. The curtain in the temple is torn, and notice what Matthew says. That curtain that is so thick and so heavy is torn, not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom. And because Jesus has entered into the holy place with his blood, there is now no separation between God's people and God. Hebrews chapter 6 says it this way, We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,

that there is an anchor that enters into the place of our redemption that is sure and steadfast. And so this morning as we partake of the bread and the cup, and we are nourished by the grace and the mercy and the love of God through the death of his Son, we are reminded that there is an anchor that holds our souls so deeply and so strongly. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I ask that as we partake of this bread, that you would remind us that we are anchored in something that is bigger and stronger than ourselves. And that that anchor is not without cost, that it was the broken body of your Son. And that as we partake of this cup, you remind us of the blood of the new covenant. The blood that opens a way for us through an impenetrable curtain of separation.

That we may enter in to find grace and mercy to help in our time. So I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. May you nourish us. May you strengthen us. May you help us with your presence. May we proclaim you until your son comes again. It's in his name we pray. Amen. If you would take the bread with me as Jesus shares with his disciples, remember Jesus. If you would take the cup as we remember that cup of the new covenant that opens a new way for us, let's remember Jesus.

Father, I thank you so much for your grace and for the peace that comes from that grace. May that be our anchor in times of joy or in times of sorrow, in times of struggle and loss. May you anchor our souls firmly to Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. At this point, the kids can be dismissed to Children's Church, and then we will move directly into our time of prayer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Just a moment will be Hearing from the Apostle Paul specifically about God's grace evidenced in his life. Before we do that, we're going to just sing one more song reminding us of the goodness of God. I love you, Lord.

Oh, your mercy never fails me. All my days, I've been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up, until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God.

All my life you have been faithful All my life you have been so, so good With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God I love your voice You have led me through the fire In the darkest nights You are close like no other I've known you as a father I've known you as a friend I have lived in the goodness of God All my life you have been faithful All my life you have been so, so good With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God All my life you have been faithful All my life you have been so, so good With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God I will sing of the goodness of God

Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your faithfulness. Even in the midst of our struggles and in our faithlessness, you have been a constant source of goodness and correction. Calling us to yourself, we thank you so much for your grace that has come with us to bring us to you. but also sustains us and energizes us as we seek to follow you. So I ask this morning that you would direct us toward that grace, that maybe we would understand it more deeply, more wonderfully, that this morning we would be surprised by grace and transformed by grace, and especially those struggles that we have with grace and our fears about grace and our pride that says we don't need grace. May you humble our hearts. May you comfort our souls. It is in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Sometimes it seems like we rush from one thing to another without much break, and so we finish up with Easter last week, the joyous celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. And now two weeks, we've got Mother's Day coming up, And a few weeks after that, we have VBS coming up. And it seems in our life that oftentimes we run from one thing to another. And I think it says something sometimes about us, not just about the busyness, because it's not necessarily bad or unhealthy to be on mission and to have times of planning and times of busyness. But sometimes I think we are so quick to move from one thing to another that we miss the moments to drink in the goodness of what we have. And so what I want us to do this morning and next week

is consider a little bit more about the resurrection of Jesus because it is this wonderful, earth-shattering, world-changing, life-transforming thing. And so many times we rush simply to see what is next. It's possible that for some of us, when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus, we might have some questions. For example, we might say, well, how is it possible that a man who was crucified and he died and was buried, how is it possible that he rose again? And then, if that is true, what do I do about it? What happens next? What are the implications of the resurrection of Jesus? And the interesting thing about the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians is that Paul sort of helps us with an answer to both of these questions. And as you read through this chapter, one of the things that Paul does is he defends the truth of the resurrection.

So in the first section of verses, he talks about all the people who have seen Jesus. And essentially what Paul is saying is, go back and check my story. To those who were contemporary with Paul, He says 500 people saw Jesus at one time. What he is doing is encouraging those original readers of this letter to go check it out with somebody other than Paul. And we might say, well, that's interesting if you're a first century reader of that. What about now? Well, in part, it tells us Paul wasn't afraid of having his story checked. But secondly, he doesn't just talk about these 500 people, most of whom who are still alive. He also says, let me tell you about Peter. Let me tell you about the apostles. Let me tell you about the brother of Jesus.

And let me tell you about myself. And look at us before the resurrection of Jesus. And look at us after and see the transformation that occurs. And so Paul defends the truth of the resurrection. The other thing that he defends is there is an idea, and I think it's especially prevalent today. It's not just the truth that this happened, but there are some who sort of come to the resurrection with a half-truth. And it's very popular today, the idea that the resurrection of Jesus was not necessarily a physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus from the grave, but it's really more of a metaphor for how we can overcome the darkness of death and the difficulty of life. and it's really more of a spiritual thing than it is a physical thing. And what you end up with is a watered-down, empty version of the resurrection.

And so Paul addresses this argument, even in the first century. And I love what he says in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 34. He goes, wake up from your drunken stupor. And he defends the truth of the resurrection. And his point is that if this is just simply a symbolic story, it's worthless and empty. But then there's other people, and maybe you're one of them who has sort of some logistical questions about what a resurrection from the dead really looks like. And Paul doesn't ignore your questions either. In fact, he seeks to help you understand a little bit more deeply. Paul argues for a real resurrection, not just for Jesus, but for us as well. But in the midst of this, from beginning to end, He's not just arguing, saying the resurrection is true. He's also saying there's something about it that changes us.

And when you see the resurrection, things are different. In fact, he begins by telling us that the gospel is the most important thing we can know, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. And as a result of that, we need to be continually reminded of that. And we need to hold on as tightly as we can. The second thing, and where we'll be this morning, is that the resurrection of Jesus directs us very clearly to the grace of God. And Paul will actually say in his words, he's like, when I talk about the resurrection, he just talks about grace. He starts out by saying, I'm not worthy of this gift, which is another way of saying it's a gift of grace. And then he says, grace, grace, grace, in the next three verses.

And where we'll end up next week as we look at grace this week, we'll see how the resurrection of Jesus is transformative in his power for the life of God's people in their steadfast and in their energy and their service of the mission of God. And so I kind of want us to take a look at this resurrection from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll take Paul's look at grace. And next week, the ending of the chapter that talks about how this transforms how we live. So I want to begin this morning by directing us first and foremost to the goodness of grace. And I don't know how old I was, but my grandma Nelson, my mom's mom, came home with one of those little cut glass crystal things that were popular for a while. Sometimes it was in the shape of an animal or a giraffe, and people would hang them up.

It's sort of a prism, and she had one that was kind of in the shape of like a raindrop, and I remember she brings it home, and we're looking at it, and as kids, right, this is something adults know, but as kids, right, you hold it up to the light, and sunlight comes in one side, and then what happens? Inside the prism and in the cuts, right, it divides the light up into its different wavelengths, and so out of the other side, you have colors, and out of all the facets, colors everywhere. So, right, you hold it up to the light, and you kind of spin it a little bit, and all of a sudden, your room looks like a disco ball, right? It's all these different colors everywhere. And as we come to the grace of God,

it can seem so simple to look at it and say, yeah, I've heard about grace, the church believes in grace, God's shown me grace, but when we begin to pour the light of what God has said and taught and showed us about grace into that, all of a sudden it explodes in this explosion of colors and crystals and joy and all that to say that it's very hard to sum up all of grace in a very simple way. Because it's not just the undeserving favor of God, but grace is tied so closely to mercy. It's why we often hear mercy and grace. It's tied so closely to the love of God and the kindness of God. And I would say also without the justice of God, we cannot see the grace of God. And so we're going to try to

get a glimpse, maybe just in a small way of a couple of those facets this morning. And we'll start like this. The grace of God is giving us freely what we do not deserve. And what you find is throughout the Bible when it talks about grace oftentimes the language is used is that of a gift but a gift specifically to those who have not earned it bought it or especially deserved it look a little bit you get a glimpse here in Romans chapter 11 Paul writes this so to it the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace I want you to see what he says about grace but if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works otherwise grace would no longer be grace and what Paul says is specifically if you look at the gift aspect of grace that if you can earn it

through your work if you can deserve it through your behavior if you can buy it with your money It is no longer grace. God is freely giving grace specifically to those who don't deserve it. And what we find throughout Scripture is that grace is extended to the enemies of God, to the rebellious, to those even who persecuted His church. and while grace is a gift that is free to receive it is costly to the one who gives it listen to this description of how we are purchased or how the grace of God has poured out for us knowing that you were ransomed from your futile ways of life inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things such as silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, that God sees broken, sinful, rebellious people who are his

enemy and he dies from them, dies for them, that grace is a gift that is freely given for salvation to those who do not deserve it. You cannot buy it, you cannot put it on layaway, you cannot set up a payment plan. There's another picture of grace that I want us to see or glimpse in Scripture that God doesn't just give his salvation by grace, but he equips us with his grace, right? So in part God's grace is his heart toward us and the gift of salvation, but he doesn't simply say, here you are. Good luck. I hope you're okay after this. Listen to what he says in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things, that in all times you may abound in every good work. And so grace is not just how we come into

the family of God, but it is how we continue as we move through the Christian life. Spurgeon will say this that salvation he just sums it up like this it's all of grace so as we come to our text today in first Corinthians 15 Paul is going to recount his experience first with the resurrection but also with God's grace so let's go ahead and read this text together last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me for i am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. It's the important part, though not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Paul loves the grace of God. In fact,

the 124 uses of grace in the New Testament, Paul uses 86 of them. And sometimes people will read, and we're probably all guilty of this in some way, reading our own personalities and our own ideas back into the Bible. And we might, for example, look at what Paul is saying here and say, man, Paul, you seem pretty proud. I worked harder than any of them. Notice that's not what Paul is saying. He is saying, I worked harder than any of them, But notice it's not about Paul, but what? About the grace of God. He goes, it's not me, not I, but the grace of God at work in my life that every good thing that happens to the Apostle Paul, he says, the only thing I did was persecute the church. But God, in his grace, changed me, transformed me,

gave me this energy and this strength and this mission, and it is all of God's grace. And what I contributed to it was the unworthiness to be called an apostle. See, Paul loves grace because of how deeply he has experienced it. It's not just a theory to him. Let's try this. Maybe it'll work. It's not a second-hand account. I heard so-and-so say this about that. Grace is all of Paul's life. I was the one untimely born. I'm unworthy. My hard work is not even me, but it is grace. And what I want us to see and what I hope has happened or will happen in your life is that grace will surprise you. Because grace is a surprising thing. In fact, look at what Paul says. He says, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

And here's the thing. No one expected Paul to follow Jesus. Just like you never expect the Spanish Inquisition, you never expect the Apostle Paul to have followed Jesus. And the example Paul gives of God's grace is simply what he's done in his life. He says, I never looked to me. There was no hope. There was no future. But the grace of God changed me in a way that nobody expected. He said it was the wrong time and the wrong place. And it's this surprising birth that caught everybody off guard. So back in January, our friend's pup started getting fat and really grumpy. Man, man, she's gotten really mean in the last few weeks. We were sitting there talking to him one day. He said, oh, it turns out she's expecting puppies. He said, we're going to have some puppies.

He said, oh, we're going to get an ultrasound of the vet. We'll let you know how many puppies. He gets to the vet. He texts me, there's eight puppies. It'll probably be about eight weeks until we see puppies. A week later, get a picture of eight puppies, right? is expecting puppies, right? Nobody had planned. Just all of a sudden, we got puppies. We got like eight weeks, two months to prepare. And all of a sudden, there they were. Paul is saying, that is what happened to me, right? Nobody expected the persecutor of the church of God. Nobody expected this to ever happen. And here I am, the one who is untimely born. Listen to what Paul says about himself. But Saul, or what Luke says about Saul, Luke goes on to travel with him, breathing threats

and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues of Damascus that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Paul is about to visit some churches, but not as a seeker, not as a first-time visitor on the road to Damascus he encounters a surprise that turns his world upside down so much so that we find later on in Acts chapter 9 that for three days he doesn't eat or drink and most of us can maybe understand we've been sick enough we didn't want to eat for three days but not drink anything for three days because your world has been turned upside down because As you're on your way to murder Christians, Jesus shows up and has some things to say to you.

But grace doesn't just surprise those who comes into their life. It surprises those who see it happen. I love this account. God comes to a man by the name of Ananias and goes, I have a mission for you. Go to this street and there's a house owned by a guy by the name of Judas. Look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. He's praying and he heard that somebody's coming and I'm sending you to preach to him. And look at Ananias. Lord, I have heard many things about this man. How much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who call upon your name. And Ananias goes, God, do you even know what you're doing? Are you sure you want me to go talk to this guy?

he can throw me in jail, drag me to Jerusalem, and maybe even have me killed. You see, the grace of God doesn't just surprise those it encounters. But when we see the grace of God in the life of others, sometimes our response is a little bit like Ananias. How can that be possible for that person? And what I want you to see about the surprise of grace is that it gives you hope. That there is hope, that no one is hopeless before God. You might, like me, look at somebody and like Ananias think, man, that guy is a goner. Like, that's the only word for it. But the surprise of grace is that nobody is hopeless before God. Not even if you have to spend 40 years or 50 years or your whole life praying for them.

There's also hope for you. There's hope for you who may be long to see Jesus and you look at your hurt and your brokenness and your sin and it is so heavy and it is so awful. Grace comes and surprises us in those darkest moments. The second thing we see about grace is that it transforms. Look what Paul says as we get into 1 Corinthians 15, verses 9 and 10. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain. That grace radically transforms every part of your life. I was the least. I was unworthy. And there was a good reason for my unworthiness because I attacked and persecuted the church of God.

Notice that Paul's transformation, right, it's not just simply cosmetic. Let's throw a new coat of paint on. Let's put some new wheels on. Let's change our hair color. Let's go to a tailor and get some nicer clothes. That Paul's transformation was from the depths of his heart into his thinking and ultimately out into his actions. Let me show you. First Christian martyr Stephen, the very next verse after Stephen is stoned to death. Saul approved of his execution. And there arose that day a great persecution against the church. And they were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen, made a great lamentation over them. So here's the contrast. The Christians are weeping and burying Stephen. Saul was ravaging the church. entering house after house, dragging off men and women,

throwing them in prison. I want you to understand this is not just accidental destruction, right? So there's these moments where maybe you have a cup of coffee, glass coffee mug, slips out of your hand and breaks, right? That's destruction. What Paul is doing is walking up to somebody, holding that cup of coffee and smacking them as hard as they can so that coffee lands on the floor, shatters and goes everywhere. The difference in the destruction is that Paul's heart was actively seeking it and loving it and delighting in it, and he was proud of it. This is the place where Paul hates the church with his whole being. And where does he end up? In Acts 9.20, he immediately begins to declare the gospel, and nobody believes him because he changed so much. And as we read through his life, he travels, has been beaten, has been left for dead,

he's been plotted against, he's been imprisoned, he's been shipwrecked. And even in those moments, his heart worries and cries from the church. It's a far cry from the man who was murderously attacking the church with vengeance to the one who will give his life in the declaration of the gospel in Rome. And if God can transform the Apostle Paul, Paul will say in 1 Timothy, Christ died for sinners, whom I am the foremost. It can happen with you. There is hope for the broken. And notice how grace energizes. Paul goes from the energy of zealous persecution to the joy of energy, and the joy of energy of zealous proclamation. And so grace is this wonderful gift that transforms us and surprises us, energizes us for the work of the kingdom. But it is also a great struggle for us.

See, when we encounter grace, our instinct, I think, is to struggle deeply with it. You see, we struggle, first of all, to understand grace. You know, we can have a definition, we can have a nice little bullet point of what grace is, maybe recognize it on a standardized test. You have four options. Which one is grace? One of my high school teachers always called that 0.25 knowledge, recognizes the correct answer when shown. Like, we might know that about grace, but we don't often really know it. And one of the greatest reasons for the fact that we don't know grace well is because in our world there aren't very many good pictures of grace. We can always maybe catch a little glimpse of grace here and there, but there's always associated with grace in our world

a little bit of payment or a little bit of deserving behind it. And in our experience, there are no free gifts, and it makes grace hard for us to understand. Maybe you've heard the acronym Tonstoffel. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. And I guess that started back in the time where you could go into the saloon and they give you a free lunch if you bought some drinks, right? Sounds like a good deal, right? They're making money. You're losing money, but you got a free lunch out of it. All of a sudden, it's a catch. It becomes popularized in the 60s and a science fiction book and in the 70s. And we all recognize there's probably no such thing as a free lunch, right? In our experience, we have to earn, deserve,

and qualify everything in life, right? Want a job? Let's see your resume. Want a credit card or a mortgage? Let's see your credit score. And because of our experience in all these things that we're told are free, but turns out there's a catch hidden somewhere inside of them, we either become very skeptical about grace, or we reject it by saying the world doesn't work that way. I've never been given anything for free when I didn't deserve it. Why would it work differently here? And so we struggle to understand grace because what we often think of as grace is simply something for you with a catch. We've got the wrong idea and the wrong description and we've looked in the wrong place. And I want you to understand that grace is a spiritual battle because at the heart oftentimes of our skepticism about grace

is the idea that I don't deserve this. And the answer is right, you don't deserve it. That's what makes grace, grace. The Scripture tells us that we have an accuser Satan, in Revelation, he's called that the accuser of the brothers, who comes and he accuses us, and he reminds us of our sin, and he reminds us of our brokenness, and he reminds us of our unworthiness, constantly reinforcing that feeling that we already have that I am not enough. And he says to us, don't try. Don't bother. Nobody would want you. I want you to understand that the understanding of grace for you and for the church is a spiritual battle and it must be fought spiritually, which means if we as Christians are going to show up and declare grace, we better be wearing the armor of God,

standing in the truth of God with the Word of God, empowered by the Spirit of God, that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against the principalities and the powers that rule in our present world. That grace, first and foremost, is a spiritual battle. Secondly, if you're seeing grace and you're hearing those accusations, look to the one who is broken for your brokenness on your behalf.

Part of our issue is that grace for us is a struggle because we're so good at looking backward. Remember what Paul says in our text. He starts out by looking backward. He says, I was unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. And some of us, this is what we do. We look backward at what we have done. And we say, I'm unworthy because of this and because of that. And therefore, I will not or cannot accept the grace that is offered to me. But it's not just us looking backward in our life struggling with grace. It's us looking backward at the lives of others and struggling to extend grace to them. And some of us and some of you are filled with unforgiveness and bitterness and it's eating you up because you look at somebody else

and you say, how can God have grace for them or to them? Do you know what Paul's response is? By the grace of God. The problem is not that you're looking backward. The problem is you're not looking backward far enough. You need to go back even further. And behold the man upon the cross, your sin upon his shoulders, to see his suffering and to hear him exclaim, it is finished, your sin and the sin of others for you. Maybe the problem is you're looking backward. I think the problem is you're not looking backward far enough. But grace is also a struggle for us because we think we can pay our own way. Intellectually, we might know something is free, but I can pay for it anyway. And one of the ways to test our hearts with this,

the pride that struggles against grace by saying, I can pay for this all on my own, is go somewhere with somebody and let them pay for you, right? What do we tend to do when somebody offers to me? Well, I'll pay you back, right? I'll get the next one. You should let me get it. Maybe in our heads we're going, you know, I can afford it more than you can. You should let me pay. Let me get the bill. Just try to accept grace in a small way. Somebody buys you coffee. Instead of arguing over the bill, just say thank you. Right? It's hard to accept. It's like, oh, I can get this one. I'll get the next one. And that small act of grace for us is hard to accept. How much harder is it for our pride to accept the grace of God for all of our sins?

If we struggle to even let somebody help us in a small way. You see, we have this idea that we can do it on our own. And once again, we're looking in the wrong place. We're looking to what we think is our strength instead of seeing the brokenness of our sin. And what Paul does is he goes back and he goes, it's not me. I was a persecutor of the church. And even as he looks at his accomplishments, I worked harder than any of them. He doesn't go, it was me, not I, but the grace of God. You see, in all of this, we're directing our attention in the wrong way. We're directing it to the words of our accuser. We're directing it to the pictures of grace we see in the world instead of Scripture.

We're directing it to our past instead of to the cross or to our strengths instead of our brokenness. I want us to direct our eyes to grace for our lives, but also as we see and interact and love others. Because grace in those moments, right, it's not just applied to us, Sanctified to all. Listen to what Spurgeon says. Let this be your comfort, little ones. That the same grace that made an apostle of Paul has made a Christian of you. The same power that has quickened the mightiest man in the army of the Lord of hosts has quickened you. There's another struggle I think we sometimes have with grace. And this is not in your notes, but I think maybe you can relate to it. It's the struggle of grace. Or maybe we've seen God's grace

and we've been overwhelmed by the power of God's grace, but we still keep looking backwards. And we say, if only I'd found the power of grace sooner. If only I had done so much more quickly. If I hadn't wasted my life, then this grace could abound even more. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a preacher in the last part, or the last half of the last century, or first half of the last century, has a sermon called Vain Regrets. And he basically said, as long as you're looking backward at what you wish could have happened, you will never look forward at the work in the kingdom that God has called you to do. I would say it's like driving a car forward or only looking at your back. what you find is that God uses those even if we look at our life and say if only it had been

sooner God says my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness he says the apostle Paul as he looked back on his regrets he said i worked harder than any of them because of the grace of God that sometimes as we seek grace we are called to look forward to what God has called us to do rather than where we wish we would have been years ago. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says of this, that so many times we spend so much time wishing about how the past would have been different that we never take a step forward in the future. And so I would encourage you this morning whether you struggle with understanding grace is to look and see what that looks like. Not just in the world, but in Scripture. would turn your eyes to the cross

that you would evaluate your heart for how you feel grace in your life but in the life of others and that you by the grace of God would see what he has called you to do moving forward rather than in regret if you haven't done it this year let's pray Father in heaven I thank you that you take and transform lives at all stages from Samuel under 10 years old to Moses at 80 years old. You take and you use people from all ages and all walks and all backgrounds as well. May we understand grace more deeply. May we live in it more truly. May we extend it to others more fully. It is in Jesus' name. We're going to stand and sing His mercy is more.

What love could remember no wrongs we have done Our nations all knowing He counts not their son Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, you every more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more

What patience would wait as we constantly roam What Father so tender is calling us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor Our sins there are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every more My sins, they are many, His mercy is more What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost We stood beneath a debt we could never afford Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, pure every more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more

Just a couple of quick announcements as we get ready to pray, read a verse of Scripture, and sing the Doxology Wednesday night Bible study. This Wednesday at 6 p.m. also, I would encourage you to be in prayer for our Vacation Bible School. June 16th through the 20th, we have a good amount of volunteers. We can always use more. There's going to be plenty to do, especially as it's our first year, and we have no idea how many kids we're going to have. And so the help, we're happy to have help with that. We'll also have some more ways to help in the coming weeks as we've been kind of getting everybody finding a spot where they'll fit and seeing what we need next. So the main thing I would encourage you to do now is pray for us

as we start letting people know about it, promoting it, as we start and continue to prepare in more detail that we would be able to proclaim the goodness and the glory of a big God who loves everybody, especially those little children who oftentimes sometimes feel overlooked or lost. We want them to see that God loves them, cares for them, and came to save them as well. So we'll pray, and I'll read from 2 Corinthians, and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your word and for your church, for your people, for your spirit, and for your love and for your grace that's been poured out to us through your Son. It's in his name we pray. Amen. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.