[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Good morning, everybody.
Good morning. Come on, one time for Jesus, the man that we are worshiping, our King, our Savior, our God.
This is the Lord's day, and I'm so glad that you're in church with us. Welcome, welcome. Welcome, everybody. It's an honor to be able to bring God's Word to you here today. So grab your Bibles, if you would. We're gonna spend some time in Second Corinthians, chapter 12.
Second Corinthians, chapter 12.
And as we're turning there, I wanna say thank you for being so generous. Many of you are standing behind us faithfully with tithes, with offerings, with financial support. We could not do what we are doing every single week here without you standing behind us. Thank you for that. We've got some missions groups that are right now in the mission field, right where they are. We're gonna tell you more about that a little bit later on in the week as we get some video and stuff back from them. We also have some wonderful things happening right here in our city. Let me just tell you, over the past week, this past Wednesday night, we had five different youth groups gathered together to start worshiping the Lord. How awesome is that to see teenagers praising God, worshiping the Lord, pouring out their hearts to God on their face before the Lord. Let me just tell you, there is hope for our next generation. There's hope for this city. There are some young people that will not compromise that love Jesus, and it is such an honor, such a privilege to be a part of that. And I'm thankful that people like you will stand behind us as we continue to lead people to Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being such a generous church. You guys are awesome. So I want to continue on with our thoughts. Last week we talked about grace, grit and glory. And this week we're going to continue on with that a little bit. Grace, grit and glory. For many of us, when we talk about grace, we think about Amazing Grace, the wonderful song. We think about that song that sung at funerals, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. But I think many of us, if we were to be honest, would say, I don't feel Like a wretch. I'm not a wretch. I don't even know what a wretch is.
Have a wretch since college.
But grace is so much more than just God forgiving us of our sins. So much more than just God pardoning us and saying, you're clean, you're reconciled. We talked about that last week. Let's talk deeper about what it means to experience God's grace. What does that look like today for me?
For you? God's grace. I was drawn to this scripture in Ephesians, chapter two, that talked about the incomparable riches of God's grace. The incomparable riches. It's like Paul, as he's writing this word to the church there, he says, it's like, I can't even explain how rich, how valuable God's grace really is. And so to many of us, I think we sell it short. We. We don't quite understand. We don't grasp how powerful God's grace really is.
And so as we're digging into God's word, it's important that we see that as the apostle Paul is. Is describing what grace looks like in his own life, he's beginning to talk about how important it is for people like me and you.
He talks about, God's grace is not just something that's forgiven me, but God's grace empowers me to stand strong today. And so for anybody that's ever walked through a season of life where you felt like this season is never going to end, this is for you. If you've ever dealt with a health struggle that you felt like, this is not getting any better, I can't get any answers. I can't get any help. It feels like I'm being tormented. This is for you.
For anyone that's ever walked through something where you pleaded with God, God, help me walk through this, and it seemed like your prayers were just hitting the ceiling and nothing was ever really changing. You're like, well, I guess this is just the way it is. This is for you.
Because Paul speaks very, very clearly about the power of God's grace In the middle of the dark times of our life, where we feel like nothing is ever gonna change. Paul says, that's where I develop real spiritual growth, grit, perseverance.
That's the good stuff.
So as we're digging into God's word, let's look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. And Paul uses a word that many of us don't use in any kind of positive context. It's the word conceited. Can you say that with me? Conceited.
Conceited. Now, in Hispanic culture, if you've ever been familiar with Hispanic culture, if you have Mexican friends, you know that everything is about not being conceited. And pretty much we put the label conceited on anything that has anything prideful attached to it, or even any self confidence. If you're confident, if you look good today, if you took a shower and you put your shoulders back and you stick your chest out, he's conceited.
He thinks he's better than everybody else like this. That's a thing.
But Paul talks about what God gave to keep me from becoming too conceited. He talks about a thorn in his flesh. So I want to show you this in context, what he's writing. He says this in verse 7.
In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given. Look at this. A thorn in my flesh.
He goes farther. He said it was a messenger of Satan.
What's it doing? He says, to torment me.
To torment me.
Three times I pleaded with God, God, take this away from me. But look at what God said. God said, no. He said, my grace is sufficient for you. God says, my power is made perfect in your weakness.
Therefore, this is what Paul says. I'm going to boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.
That's why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses.
I delight in insults. I delight in hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
Paul says, I found great strength in the middle of my weaknesses. And the parts of my life that I felt like I was getting no relief from. Nothing is changing, nothing is moving. There is no breakthrough. There is no deliverance.
It's just struggle after struggle after struggle. Paul says, I found great strength in that. How did you find great strength? God's grace.
His grace was sufficient for me when the answer from God was no.
So I don't know about you, but when I think about when Paul says I had a thorn in my flesh, I think of it as a splinter. And so if you've been around very long, you've had times in your life where you had a splinter in your foot or in your hand or something, you're like, oh, I need to find some Twizzlers, tweezers. I can get in there and pull this thing out. It's just something that's irritating, something that's annoying. You're like, ah, it's just bothering me.
But when Paul uses this word, a thorn in my flesh, in the ritual language, it's not a splinter. Think more like tent peg.
Think more like a stake.
He says, this is not just some irritating issue. This is something that is real torment, constant pain. You can't ignore it. It's not going away. He said three times I pleaded with God, take this away from me. This hurts. This is not good. And not only did God not deliver him, God says, my grace is sufficient for you when your condition, when your situation is not changing.
Ouch.
For many of us today, we're foolishly taught some bad theology. That if bad things are happening in my life, it's because I don't have enough faith. It's because I didn't pray the right prayer. It's because I didn't do things exactly the right, right way. Or that God is punishing me from my past. That's not always the case.
That's not necessarily true. Because the apostle Paul had more faith than all of us probably combined.
And God still said no.
Remember, this is at a time where people like Paul and people like Peter were walking down the streets and people were just getting healed in their shadow.
So you're telling me that I can be used by God to do great things and then still great things not happen for me? Yes.
There are times when God says no. And Paul says, I had a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to just torment me. And God began to show me some things that I couldn't see any other way. Without that thorn, what did you come to understand? He said, I came to understand grace.
His grace is sufficient for me. His strength is made perfect in my weakness.
So I don't really think of it as splinter anymore. When he's using that word. It's a. It's a thorn in my flesh. And I've never really had that much of experience with a thorn in my flesh or a stake in the side. Like, I've not had that.
But there was one time I just come in from. I think it was from hunting. And I'd got there and I'd sat in so long in the middle of December, and it got really, really cold. And ice storm hit. And it was one of those things where you're happy to be outside and then it gets super cold. And then you get the cold in your chest. And when I get cold in my chest, I'm done. That's it. I gotta get down. I gotta warm up. And I remember finally getting all the way back down from my hunting stand all the way back home. And the power had gone out because the ice had taken down some transformer or something. So there's no power in my house. There's no electricity. Everything is dark. And I'm sitting here freezing. And I remembered, like, yeah, but we do have a gas water heater. So I've got hot water. That's all I care about. I need to get into the shower. I need to get warm right now. So I run to the bathroom, I close the door, it's completely pitch black. And kick off all my clothes, throw them on the floor, get in the shower. Gets super hot. Just set in there for like two days. It's like, skin gets all wrinkly, super beet red.
I remember thinking, okay, I'm finally warming up just a little bit. And I go to step out of the shower. And what I'd forgotten was I had left my clothes on the floor. And as I stepped down, I stepped onto my belt buckle.
And that little belt buckle thing that comes off your belt went right through the heel of my foot.
I did not need electricity in that moment. Bright lights being like, wow.
So I'm. I'm like one foot hopping through a dark house, trying not to. Trying not to break a hip. I'm almost 50. That could end me one. Hopping through this house. And of course, I finally make my way to the couch and I'm screaming for my wife to come. She's like, what do I do? I'm like, do it. Take it out. Leave it in. You take it out. You leave it. What do you do? It's like, well, it's not really bleeding. Like, well, it is in there. It's in there for real. I got a whole belt hanging off of my foot.
And so she grabs the belt buckle. She's like, all right, I'm gonna pull it. And like, okay, I'm gonna pull onto my foot. And I just grabbed something for me to bite down on. And so here we go. And what I'd forgotten was it didn't just go, like straight in there. Like, it has a little hook on the end of that thing, bruh.
I think there are some moments of your life where pastors are excused from saying some things that would get us into trouble. There are some words that were right there that I'm like, woo.
I'm like, okay, you have to pull it at an angle. This ain't going to work. And so it took us a while. We finally got the thing removed. And I thought, you know what? I understand the thorn in my flesh just a little bit better. It's not something you can just ignore. Like, I'll go to work Monday, I'll cover it up, it'll be fine. Like, no, there's a whole belt attached to my foot.
Paul says, there was a thorn in my flesh that just was tormenting me. It was a difficult season and I asked God for help. Take it out, give me some relief. And God said, no. Instead, I'm going to give you grace.
God, I don't want grace. I want deliverance.
God says, no, I'm giving you grace. Three times I pleaded with God to take it out. Paul says, and God says, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. So Paul says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to boast about my weaknesses because when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
As we're digging into this scripture, helping us to understand it just a little bit more, it's important that we see that grace, the grit, the glory that comes when we understand grace in a much deeper and a more profound way. There's some things that are important for us to understand. And if you're a note taker, go ahead and write this down. Number one. Number one, God allows and uses thorns. God allows them and God uses the thorns.
Now, if you're familiar with the creation story, you know this, that in the Garden of Eden, in the perfect world that God created, there was no thorns. None of that existed. You're like, thanks a lot, Adam and Eve. You messed it up for the rest of us because we live in Texas where the state flower is not the bluebonnet, it's the sticker.
Everything here will stick you. Mesquite, wood and the vines and the. Everything sticks and hurts.
That's Texas. It's part of it. Man up.
But before first man sinned, there was no thorns.
And as a result of man's sin, the Bible says this in Genesis. In Genesis chapter three, God says, I'm cursing the ground because of you. It's going to produce thorns. It's going to produce thistles. And he says, I'm going to produce these. Look at these next and last two words for you.
For you things that cause pain. I'm creating that for you. Why? God says, because you're going to understand my grace in a new way.
There was sin, there was pain, and there's grace that covers us in the middle of that pain.
There's a lot more than just Genesis chapter three, where God Uses the thorns in the Old Testament. And the New Testament talks about a few chapters later, when Abraham was was asked by God to sacrifice his firstborn son, Isaac. And as he climbs up the mountain and places his son onto the altar, lifts up the knife, it says, he looks over and there is a ram caught in a bush, a thorn bush.
God used the thorn to provide the land that the sacrifice would not have to be made of his own son. A picture of God showing us his grace.
Hello. There's grace in the middle of the thorn.
We could go on and use other examples. The Bible talks about when Moses was on the backside of the desert thinking, I'm a nobody. I'm on the run from Pharaoh. I'll never do anything great with my life.
He sees a burning bush.
The original language there does not just say a bush. It says, a thorn bush that is caught on fire, but it's not burning up. And he says, I'm gonna turn aside. I'm gonna look at this bush. That's not.
It's not burning up yet. It's on fire.
And in the midst of that, God began to speak to Moses. You're not just a shepherd. You're a deliverer. You're not just here to watch over a few sheep. You're here to call on Pharaoh to deliver my people. I'm making you a deliverer.
God used, once again, the thorn.
God not only used it for them, he uses it for you. He uses it for me. God still uses the thorn. When God spoke to his people in Israel, and as they were crossing over into the promised land, God spoke to them about the Canaanites. He said, you better drive them out. You better drive them out. Or look at this in numbers 33. They will become thorns in your side.
God gave a warning.
You better do what I'm telling you to do. Otherwise, this is what's going to happen. You have a thorn in your side to remind you that you didn't listen.
God uses the thorn.
So it's impossible for us to look at our situations that are not changing. The seasons of torment, the seasons of when things are going wrong, and to not say, lord, are you speaking through this? Is there no way that you're using this? It's not always the devil, according to Paul. He says God used it and showed me something I couldn't have seen at any other time of my life. I understand deeper the grace of God in the middle of the seasons that I thought, I wish I could get some deliverance out of this stuff. You see, God Allows the thorns to limit our pride, to remind us of our calling and to push us back toward his grace.
God uses the thorn.
Now, one of the things that people will say, and a lot of pastors have done this, I know what the thorn was. I understand what it is. No, you don't.
Paul never clarifies what that exactly is. Like it was his mother in law. Like, no, come on.
Well, it was Paul's eyes or it was his health. Maybe there's lots of good arguments. Maybe, maybe, but you don't know. And pastors will say, I know what Jesus was writing in the sand when they threw that woman that was caught in adultery. No, you don't know what he wrote. It doesn't say what he wrote. You don't know what it wrote. God didn't tell you. He didn't clarify for you what he didn't clarify for anybody else. But there's good news, is the good news that we don't know what Paul's thorn in his flesh was. The reason why he doesn't clarify, that is so we can identify with it.
Because if it was something that he said, oh, it was my mother in law. You're like, well, I don't understand what that's like. My mother in law's great.
Or if he said, oh, it's what was my health like? Well, I got great health. So I can't identify with that. No, he doesn't identify it so that you could identify with his struggle.
It doesn't clarify.
But Paul says, it was bad enough for me to plead with God, God, please take this away from me. God, deliver me from this sin situation. This is bad. I can't write a check to get out of it. I can't fix this situation. I can't say the right words. I can't fix it.
Help me.
It was bad enough for him to plead with God to take it away.
I think for some of us we'd say, yeah, I'm walking through a difficult season. And is it difficult? Maybe it's only difficult in your mind. Sometimes it's a lot bigger for us than it really is.
Some of us, like I've been pleading with God to deliver me from this. Like, no, the kids are going to go back to school in just a little bit. You're going to be fine. It's not life and death.
Like, you don't understand. They messed up my order at Chick Fil A. I will never get over this. I've been pleading with God to take me out of this situation. Calm down, Fold the laundry. Put the laundry away. It's not life or death. Like, calm down. Some of us get a little worked up over things that are not really a thorn in your flesh.
Let me just say this.
Let me just say it this way. If you haven't prayed about it, is probably not that bad.
Come on, somebody. If you haven't prayed about it, it's probably not that bad. If all you've done is tell your friends about, oh, he's just horrible to me. Have you prayed about it? No. Then it's not that bad. But Paul said it was that bad. That I'm pleading with God, help me, help me.
And God says, I'm helping you in ways that you don't understand.
I'm giving you grace.
We know this through this passage that God uses weakness to display his strength and to develop yours.
Many of us have no idea what we're really capable of. Until you walk through seasons where things don't get better or God doesn't just supernaturally pick you up and take you out and deliver, you know, sometimes doesn't work out that way.
Now, do I believe that God still heals? Absolutely. I've experienced it more times than I can even count. God still heals. Let me just encourage you in your faith. If you're walking through a dark season, can God deliver? Yes. Can God heal? Come on.
Can God absolutely take care of things? Yes. Does God hear the prayers of his people? Yes. Does God still do the miraculous? Yes. Yes, he does. Does he always do it? No, not the way that you.
And so when we use words like grace during those situations, it's difficult for some of us to process because we think of grace as God's forgiveness.
Let me say it this way.
God's grace is more than a pardon. It's power.
Power in the midst of dark days, in the midst of times where it doesn't change, in the midst of the difficult seasons. God's grace is sufficient and his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Grace, grit and glory. God allows and uses the thorns. Here's the second thing I want you to see. If you're a note taker, write this down. Number two. God's grace is greater than God's deliverance.
Now, I'm not talking about your deliverance from sin, not talking about your deliverance from the things that you've done. And God's grace. No, no. That is grace. God's grace is greater than God's deliverance from that situation.
Now, this is something that most of us would say, no, thanks I would much rather have God's deliverance than God's grace. I just want him to get me out of it.
Sometimes God says no.
Paul pleaded with God, and God said no.
Matter of fact, not only did God say no, God still says no.
For those of us living in America today, for those of us that have been so blessed that. That live in the favor of God. When was the last time somebody told you no?
We don't hear that word a lot.
We may speak it a lot to our children. No, no, no, no.
But when was the last time God told you no?
Because sometimes we make God into our own image. That God loves me. That he loves me so much, he would never tell me no.
The Lord is my shepherd. He knows what I want. He gives me all the desires of my heart.
No, that's not scripture.
That's you.
And we've developed some sort of version of Santa Claus.
Sometimes God says no.
And there's grace in his no. God's no always has a bigger and a better purpose.
So Paul says, lord, would you please take this away from me? God says, no, no, no. My grace is sufficient. Translation is this. You don't need it to go away. You need me. You don't need it to go away. You need my grace. Like, that's cool and all, but maybe just this time, we get deliverance. Can we?
Three times I pleaded with God to take it away. Paul says, God says, my grace is sufficient.
God still says no. God didn't remove the thorn. What did he do? He repurposed it.
He repurposed it.
So from the time that the thorn was brought into creation because of man's sin, it was brought as a result of the curse. Here's the good news. Jesus on the cross didn't just take nails in his hands and his feet didn't just take a spear in his side. He also took a crown. Of what?
Thorns upon his head.
A crown of thorns. He takes that thorn and he repurposes it so that it can show you another great picture of his grace. He removes the curse from the thorn and repurposes it for our good.
It would have been difficult for Paul to see that because he's walking through a hard season. It would have been hard for him to say, okay, I see your grace. This is great. Thank you for the thorn.
Mm. Easier said than done because it hurt.
But remember this about Paul.
Paul was doing things that no other human at that time got to do. Paul was seeing things that nobody else got to see. Paul was experiencing the Manifest power of God in incredible, dramatic, supernatural ways. It would have been really, really easy for Paul to become conceited, for Paul to become prideful. And one of the things that we see so prevalent in our world today is pride in ministry.
And this is the reason why many don't finish very well.
Because you're good and you're talented and you're special and God's grace is on your life, and God's favor is on your life.
And all those things are wonderful until pride begins to take root.
Here's what I found, that some sufferings aren't punishment, they're protection.
They're protection.
And Paul says, God allowed that to be part of my life. I pleaded with him to take it away, but he's using it to protect me, to keep me from becoming too conceited, too prideful.
Paul says, I've gotten to see things that were unlawful for man to even utter. I was caught up in the third heaven. I've seen things that I can't even talk about. And I've got this thorn in my flesh to remind me I'm still human.
I'm still human.
I still experience pain.
And there are things that God does through me that God won't allow to happen to me.
Not because he's not good, not because he doesn't love me. He's protecting me.
One of the things that we know about the life of Paul is he does something that a lot of ministers, a lot of pastors never get to experience. Look at me. He finished well.
He finished well. He didn't finish in a cloud of controversy. He didn't finish having some affair with some lady. He didn't finish embezzling a bunch of money. He didn't finish in some drug addict stupor. He didn't finish that. He finished well. And one of the reasons why is because the thorn in his flesh was there to remind him of the grace of God.
Some sufferings are there not to just torment you, but to protect you.
Oh, but grace is just God's pardon. No, no, no, it's much more than that. See, grace doesn't stop at forgiveness, but it is present tense strength. For every day God uses the thorn. And God's grace is greater than his deliverance from our pain. Here's the third and final thing I want to show you. Number three. Weakness becomes a platform for real power.
Weakness becomes the platform for real power. This is a difficult thing for some of us to process. And it would have been the same for those that are living in Rome and Those that are surrounded and with Paul's ministry, they recognize that Rome is a big deal. It's all about masculinity and power and military strength. Very much like America today.
Power.
Strength through power. And Paul says, strength through weakness.
It's exactly the opposite.
God says, my grace is sufficient, and my strength, God's strength, God's real power is made perfect in our weakness. So Paul begins to talk about the things and begins to boast about the things that most of us would hide, that most of us would not talk about.
Most of us have to pay somebody a lot of money to walk through therapy with those private things. Paul says, I'm going to boast about them. Why? Because it shows that the strength of God is at work in this broken vessel of my life.
He says, you want to talk about real power? I found in the boasting of those things?
I found the strength of God. I found his great grace.
God deliberately uses our weaknesses to magnify his strength, to show the world how strong he is, what real power looks like.
And Paul says, that's the source of my strength. Understanding the grace of God, understanding how good he is. When circumstances are not good, when they're not changing, it's not getting better. When it hurts, God's given his grace.
Here's what I found to be true. That strong faith isn't pretending that everything is fine. It's clinging to the grace of God when it's not fine.
And I found so much horrible theology that would say you're not being very strong in your faith right now because you just can't say that it's messed up. Guess what?
Paul would disagree. Paul would say it's messed up, but God's still good.
It hurts, but God's grace is sufficient for me. I'm not okay, but I'm not quitting either.
God's using it. God's repurposing it. He's fixing it. Am I broken? Yes. Am I messed up? Yes. I don't like it.
But God's good.
And if his answer was no, then his no has more of a purpose for it than his deliverance.
Paul shows us what real power looks like, and it comes through weakness.
I was reading an old proverb from India this past week, and there's a proverb about a man that had to carry water every day on a pole across his back with two buckets on each side. And he'd have to go down the mountainside to the river and fill up both buckets with water and carry those buckets all the way back up to the master's house every day for his house to have water.
One of those buckets was perfect and could hold a full amount of water. And the other one had a. Had a crack and it had a leak.
And after years and years and years of him carrying this water all the way back up from the river to his master's house, the bucket that was complete became very, very proud of how much water he could carry. And the bucket on the other side with the leak and the crack in it felt very ashamed, very broken.
And the bucket finally tells the man that's carrying the water. He says, I feel so bad. I've been carrying this water for you for years. And I realize that every time we get back to the master's house, I only have about half the water that the other one can carry. That one's perfect. And I'm the one that's broken. I can't do what they can do in the. The man that's carrying the water says, I understand. I've known about that leak. I've known about the crack for a long time. But have you noticed the flowers that grow on the side of the path that your water has been giving life to? I planted seeds there a long time ago, and instead of fixing the crack, I'm using that leak.
He said, I've picked those flowers and brought beauty into the master's house. That would not be there if not for your brokenness.
And just like Paul's thorn, God says, I'm not fixing that, I'm using it.
What could God be using that we wish he would fix?
Wish we'd just change it.
God, would you just fix my marriage? And God says, can I show you something? Can I show you some grace?
I think God would say to some of us in a broken relationship and a broken marriage, and God would say, have you extended grace or have you just expected it?
Can he bring grace into your conversations?
For those of us that are walking through financial difficulties, for those of us walking through health difficulties, where it seems like this is not going to get better, and we've gone from one bad doctor's visit to a next bad doctor's visit, from one therapist to the next therapist, and it doesn't seem to ever get fixed, for those of us that have had to deal with lagging pain, lagging injury, lagging disappointment, over and over and over again, it's not changing, it's not getting fixed, it's not getting better. I don't feel like there's any progress. God Would say, can I, Can I use that?
God, I just want yout to fix it.
God said, I'll give you something better.
I'll give you my grace because My strength is made perfect in your weakness. And I want to use that brokenness.
Can he use that today?
Let me just remind you there's an incredible gracious God who has a call and a purpose on your life.
He wants you to understand Him a little bit better. It really is the hope of our church that you would know God. In order to know God, you got to know his grace. You got to know it's more than just him forgiving you of your sin, but him empowering you to get through times when life getting any better.
That doesn't mean that you're not being positive. It doesn't mean you got a negative mindset. It means you're human.
You're human.
You can be honest and say, lord, if you're not going to fix this, then use it.
I'm all in.
I finished that story about the proverb from India and the guy from first service left. He said, I've known for a long time. My wife confirmed it. I'm a crackpot.
Like, I'm using that second service. They're going to love that. Apparently you don't.
But as we finish up today, I want to ask you crackpots to do something that I ask every week. Go ahead and put away your Bibles, put away your phones.
Let's have a moment where we get honest before the Lord.
And I want to ask you to do something that maybe it's not very easy to do, but can we just identify some parts of our life that are not good?
Maybe take for a moment, take a little inventory of your life and say, you know what, this has been a lagging thing that I've been struggling with.
I don't seem to have a lot of deliverance. I don't have a lot of direction. There's not been a lot of hope in this area of my life. And for some of you, that may be a miscarriage issue, infertility issue.
Maybe it's a marriage issue.
Things don't seem to be getting better. Maybe it's a mental health thing or a habit that you've picked up. I just can't get any traction with this. I can't get over it. Paul would say, the things that I want to do, I don't do and things that I end up doing are just not the right thing. I don't want to live like this.
Can we just Take a moment and identify the parts of our life that are not good.
And maybe just for today, we don't ask God for deliverance, but we thank him for his grace.
So all over this place, with heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to invite you to just begin to open up your mouth right now and start thanking God for his grace. Can you do that? Right where you are. Forget about the person on your right and on your left.
Have this moment with your Father and begin to thank God for his grace. The grace that does more than just cover my sin, but empowers me to rise above it. The grace that doesn't just pardon me, but positions me in a place to receive the strength from God. It's not just strengthening me, but it's saving me.
Oh, what a great God you are.
A God that has grace for the moment.
Grace that gets me through the tough days.
Grace.
Grace. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your great grace.
Thank you for loving me enough to not give up on me, for helping me in my brokenness, for walking me through the difficult moments of my life, for forgiving me of my sin and giving me purpose new life.
Thank you, Lord, for grace when it hurts.
Lord, today we boast in weakness because we find that just like the apostle Paul, when I'm weak, then I'm strong.
Your grace is made perfect in our weakness. Thank you, Lord, for that.
As we finish up today with heads bowed and with eyes closed, perhaps you came to church today or you're even watching online. You say, pastor, if I'm going to be honest with you, I don't have a relationship with Jesus right now. I am so far from God. You may have never asked God to forgive you of your sins. You may have never asked God for his grace. You may be so far from the Lord, maybe you were even raised in church, but you've gotten away from God and you know that you need to come home. There's a part of your heart that the Lord is tugging on right now, saying, come home. You may say, how do I do that, my friend? It starts with a prayer, and I wanna invite you to take a step of faith right here and right now, today, with heads bowed and with eyes closed, I wanna invite you to pray.
I'll even tell you the words to say, but right where you are. If you want a relationship with Jesus, pray with me. These words right now. You can pray it out loud if you want to. You can pray it silently. It doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you believe it. But pray this prayer with me. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that you came and died. And I believe that you rose from the grave so that I could have life, so that I could have grace, so that I could have forgiveness.
Now pray this with me, my friend. Say, Jesus, will you please forgive me?
Will you cover me with your grace?
I'm all in.
I'll live for you for the rest of my life.
I give my life to you right now in Jesus name.
And with heads bowed and eyes closed all across this place, those of you that really prayed that prayer that meant it, would you do me a huge favor? Would you just lift up your hand all across this place and say, pastor, that was me. I prayed that prayer. Nobody else is looking around. Would you lift up your hand? Good, good, good. Good for you. Proud of you. Yes, sir.
Yes, ma'. Am. Good for you. Yes, sir. I see you.
Good for you. For those of you that prayed that prayer, I am so proud of you. This is an incredible step of faith for you. I want you to know that this is not the end of your relationship with Jesus. This is the beginning. And God takes that moment very seriously. I want to encourage you to keep going.
One of the ways that you do that, I want to help you with it.
So behind me on the screen is a phone number. For those of you that just raised your hand, there's a phone number coming up. I want to invite you to text me, text the words I prayed to that number.
If you do that, what I'm going to do is send you back the link to some things that will help you understand what just happened in your heart and what to do next.
I'm extremely proud of you. Good for you.
Good for you. How Rich family. Go ahead and look up at me if you would. Then let's stand to our feet together today.
It's such an honor to bring God's word. We already now, right now, as of right now, between first and second service, there are 11 people responding to the gospel. And we think that's a pretty big deal. Come on, somebody.
Thank you, Lord.
God's grace is still.
I have our elders and their wives stepping forward and these guys are going to be available to pray for you about anything that you might be walking through. If you're watching online today, struggling with an issue, man, give us a DM Give. Type us something in the chat. Say, would you pray for me about this? We would love to pray for you.
For everybody else, I want to make a special announcement on September 11th. Unite is happening. Unite 2025 is happening right here in Longview. We are bringing in tar and wells to lead us in worship, to lead us in some songs, to bring us some stuff. It is going to be absolutely wicked awesome, as my friends from Boston would say.
I cannot wait for that to happen. Now, we couldn't, of course, put it here, but we have it at the Belcher center at Letourneau. They've been so kind to host that for us. We have a bunch of churches from all over East Texas are going to be gathering together that night to worship the Lord together. I want you to be a part of that. So there are tickets available. They will not last, so please do not wait to get your tickets. I want to make sure that High Ridge Longview has a massive showing there so we can worship the Lord together and see what God is doing all across this city. City. We are not in competition with other churches. We're here to be a part of the body of Christ and watch Jesus name be lifted up all across this place. And I love it. I love the spirit of unity that's happening here. Can you please come and support that? That's a beautiful thing. So those tickets are available for you and then for everybody else, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to bless you and send you out today. Father, I pray that you bless my friends, that you would strengthen them, that you would heal and provide, that your grace would be sufficient for them to walk them through whatever they're walking through. We ask these things in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus Christ and all of us together said Amen. God bless you as you go. Have an awesome day.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening.
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[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: See you next time.
