grace

Would you like to turn to Romans 6:8 please.

Romans 6:8.

All got your Bible's today? Very good.

Romans 6:8, Paul says:

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.

18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

Hallelujah! Therein we have the Gospel.

So that's why we have baptism - because we actually died with Christ when He died on the cross - and baptism symbolizes that, because we go under the water.

But then we come out again just as Jesus came out of the tomb. In newness of life, full of victory and eternal life. We come up out of the water - because we come up in His life.

So we actually died on the cross in Jesus. If we get into Jesus - even now, 2000 years after the event - we are still partakers in that death.

And we are also partakers in His resurrection because we are in Him and we rise to newness of life in Him.

So whatever Jesus did He didn't just do as a representative of the human race or on behalf of the human race - but He did it with us in Him, and we did it with Him.

So we have died to our old nature - to our old sin nature - and now we have risen with God's divine nature in us.

That means we're born again. That's what born again means. Hallelujah? We're born again! Hallelujah.

So we are no longer under the Law but now we're under grace.

What does that mean? Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them."

Well we know that He fulfilled the ceremonial and the sacrificial law, because He was the Lamb of God, and He was sacrificed instead of us needing to bring sacrifices of lambs and doves and pigeons and goats and bulls - we don't have to do that anymore because Jesus fulfilled that Law.

The law of sin and death - "if you sin, someone's got to die" - that's the law of sin and death. Jesus fulfilled that because He died once for all - so we don't have to keep bringing those sacrifices that the Law stipulated.

We don't have to go to Jerusalem three times a year; we don't have to do all those ceremonial laws; we're not under the Law anymore, under the law of sin and death.

So I thought, "Well, what does it really mean to be under the Law?" and I looked up "under" in the Greek and it actually means under the power of, under the power of. So we are no longer under the power of the Law.

Acts 10:38 said, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him."

So those people were under the power of the devil. And so are we - until we're born again. Then we're no longer under the power of the devil, we're no longer under the power of the Law, but we're under grace. So grace is something else, hey.

Oh hallelujah!

But we still have to struggle to do what's right sometimes don't we.

Matthew Henry was a great theologian that lived in the 1700s and he wrote a commentary on Romans six and he says this, that:

"Paul argues from the precious promises and privileges of the new covenant...[in verse 14]... it might be objected that we cannot conquer and subdue sin - it's unavoidably too hard for us. 'No,' says he, 'you wrestle with an enemy that may be dealt with and subdued, if you but keep your ground and stand to your arms; it is an enemy that is already foiled and baffled; there is strength laid up in the covenant of grace for your assistance, if you will but use it..."

[This is said in the 1700s.]

"...sin shall not have dominion...God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for the mortifying of sin than our promises to God..."

In other words, in our new year's resolutions we might say, "Oh, I'm not going to sin anymore," and we promise God we won't do certain things but then we fall into it again because our promises to God have no power in them, but His promises to us do have power in them!

"...Sin may struggle in a believer and may create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but shall not rule over him. For we are not under the law, but under grace, not under the law of sin and death but under the law of the spirit of life, which is in Christ Jesus: we are actuated by other principles than we have been: new lords, new laws. Or not under the covenant of works,which requires brick, and gives no straw, which condemns upon the least failure, which runs thus, 'Do this, and live; do it not, and die;' but under the covenant of grace...which requires nothing but what it promises strength to perform..."

So God doesn't ask us to do anything without giving us the strength and the ability to actually perform that.

"...Christ rules by the golden sceptre of grace, and he will not let sin have dominion over those that are willingly subject to that rule..."

Hallelujah! If we want grace He will give it - and that will enable us to perform everything that we should be performing for God, to be totally obedient to Him.

The Difference Between Grace & Mercy

MERCY

I think a lot of people get confused with the difference between grace and mercy, but mercy actually is to have pity, compassion, feelings of kindness, goodwill or sympathy with the misery of another. That is mercy.

Mercy is what we have on our children when they do something wrong - and we want to kill them, but we don't - we have mercy on them.

Mercy is what the parents of those people convicted in Bali, that were convicted of carrying drugs, we wanted the Bali Court to have mercy on them, but they didn't.

But now that we're born again God does have mercy on us, He had mercy on our situation.

Because He's a God of justice and mercy - He had to send Jesus. At the cross the mercy and the justice come together - in Jesus, in Jesus.

Bennett, you had a time when you were before a Court and the Judge had mercy, would you like to come and share with us what that was like when the Judge had mercy on you.

Bennett:

"Thanks. Yeah. A lot of you probably don't realize um uh I think a lot of people perceive me as being a Christian all of my life but I've got news for you - um, yes.

Well there was a time when um in my early twenties when I used to be a drug dealer and um I was actually a drug addict for 15 years. I came through the Transformations program and God has truly transformed my life but um when I first came into the program there was something that was very heavy weighing over my shoulders.

When I was about 23, I, I got caught for drug-dealing and I went to the Courts and I was charged and everything, and um later on I absconded - I breached my bail conditions and community service order etc, etc - and I ran away interstate, and for ten years I had that hanging over me, and I couldn't visit my family in New South Wales because um if I went into that State I'd be arrested straight away.

And I had um my mother ring the police many times and ask them, "What should my son do to get out of this the most, you know, uh light uh punishment?" and they just said, "Look he has to hand himself in, and without a doubt he's going to be charged and he's going to be thrown in jail."

So I just avoided that for many years and it wasn't until I became a Christian and went into Transformations, um I just really felt God put on my heart just to trust Him, and I heard a, a sermon from a visiting preacher, and it really encouraged me to really trust God and just go and hand myself in.

But the thing was, there was a high possibility that I was going to go to jail, that I was going to be sentenced, um for what I did, and um, but the Lord really encouraged me and gave me a word which I stood on, and He said, 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you.' He said that, um you know, 'you may go through the waters, and you may travel through the rivers, and you may go through the fire, but they will not harm you.'

And so I really just knew - I just gotta trust God.

So I went down to the Tweed Heads um Police Station, after um many people that were around me at that time were saying, "You're mad. What are you doing? You're gonna go to jail! If you go and hand yourself in you will definitely be sentenced."

And I said, "Look, you know, I'm just trusting God, and, and He's a righteous God and He's a just God and if that's the just punishment that I deserve well then I'm willing to receive that - but I'm just gonna trust God."

So I went down and handed myself in and um the Police didn't really know what to do with me. They said, "It's been 10 years. You sure? Why don't you just go and we'll pretend you never walked in here."

But I said, "No, I want this, I want this heaviness, this weight, um taken off me. I want to, I want to deal with this now."

So I handed myself in, they arrested me and put me in the holding cell, and I was in there for about five or six hours and all I did was just praise God for about five hours nonstop.

I never once said, "God, can you get me out of here," I was just praising God for who He is, because I knew that it was just totally His mercy that I, that, that I was going to you know, come out of this.

Um, anyway so the police, they eventually processed me and they let me out with an unconditional bail, which was pretty-well unheard of, they were even shaking their heads saying, "Oh we don't know why we're letting you out right now but we're going to anyway."

So they let me out and, two weeks later I went to Court and I, I didn't have any legal representation or anything, I was purely, the Lord really spoke to me and said: 'Don't rely on the world, rely on Me.'

So I went into there and I, I got the Duty Solicitor and he's just saying, "Oh look you know the probability is that you're gonna be arrested straight after you go in here."

And it's like, "Yeah well if that's the case so be it."

So um I, I went before the Magistrate and anyway he was going through all the paperwork and he's looked up at me and he was all confused, he's like, you know, I can hear him mumbling under his breath, and eventually he said, "Oh, you're free to go!"

And I thought, "No, he's not talking to me." I just sat there and I'm just waiting again and he looked up and he said, "What are you still doing sitting in my Court room?" He said, "It's finished!"

[applause]

Hallelujah!

So I was a bit surprised, I'm like, "Are you sure, you haven't got something wrong there, you know - what's going on?"

So the Solicitor said, "Yeah, you can go."

So I went out and I went to the Clerk of the Courts, I said, "Oh surely there's a fine, or something," you know.

And I went to the Clerk of the Courts, they said, "Oh, just a minute, we'll go and have a look."

They went out, they come back, they said, "Nuh, there's there's nothing. You're free to go."

And it just blew me out that the Magistrate, his last words were, "It's finished."

Then I walk outside and I looked on the street corner, there's a sign, and it says, 'Recreation Street'. Recreation Street, that was the name of the street the Court House is on - Recreation Street - I'm like, 'Praise God! Hallelujah!'

And then the next day it was in the newspapers, and the headline said, 'Courts Forgive and Forget.'

And it said, a church volunteer had been forgiven, um, for charges relating to blah-blah-blah, and he was released, free to go, with no fines or charges.

So Hallelujah! Praise God for His mercy and His grace."

[applause]

Hallelujah. That's mercy! That's mercy.

And that's what God has on us, if we just come before Him and say we've done something wrong - He will have mercy on us, because of the cross.

And until Bennett actually came to the Judge and said, "I've done something wrong," and handed himself in, he wasn't free, he wasn't free. He couldn't go and see his family, he couldn't go anywhere. He couldn't go interstate but after that - after he'd received mercy - he had a new life, and he could, he could go and visit his family for the first time in ten years. So he had a totally new life.

But he had to come first to the Court and say, "I've done something wrong," - so that he could receive the mercy.

And we need to come before God and say, "We've done something wrong, we need your mercy."

And God would love to give everyone mercy all the time but He can't, because He's a just God, and if He did, there'd be anarchy, so that's not His way, it's not His way.

That mercy and forgiveness cost God a lot. He had to send Jesus to die on the cross. It wasn't a light thing. It cost Him a lot, to be able to give us mercy.

THE MEANING OF GRACE

But grace is something else totally altogether.

John 1:16 says, "From the fullness of His grace we have all received, one blessing after another, for the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ".

So what exactly is this thing that we call grace?

Mercy and justice come through God the Father - grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.

Well the Greek word for grace is charis (and I told some of the ladies this last Saturday night - so my apologies to the ladies if you're hearing this again) - but I think it's really, really important, and I think it's something God really wants us to know.

So charis is the word for grace - that's in the New Testament - and uh we get the word, we getcharismatic from it, which we understand to mean the gifts of the Spirit.

So we've got prophecy, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, tongues and interpretation, faith, miracles, healings, discernment - they are the gifts of the Spirit, or the charismata. But the charis themselves are graces.

So we talk about gifts and graces - so they're very closely linked. They come when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, and we're given the gifts of the Spirit, we can operate in the gifts of the Spirit - but He also gives us the charis which is the grace of the Holy Spirit.

So what does that mean? Well it says in the Bible Concordance that, as an objective:

"that which bestows or occassions the pleasure, delight or causes favourable regard..."

So it can be applied to: "...beauty, gracefulness of person, gracefulness of speech..." We talk about dances being graceful.

And then there's the subjective which is the graciousness, so that graciousness is sort of on the inside what gracefulness is on the outside. So you need to have a graceful inner spirit and then you become gracious.

So we talk about a friendly disposition which the kindly act precedes, graciousness, lovingkindness - lovingkindness was a word that had to be put together when they were translating the Bible because English didn't have a word that would fit who God is, and so they linked two words together - lovingkindness - specific for God.

"...good will generally, especially with reference to divine favour or grace. There is stress on its freeness and universality..." [so it's for everyone]

"...it's spontaneous character, it's as in the case of God's redemptive mercy and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient. So it's set against with contrast to dead works and the Law."

So we talk about God being gracious. He's there, He's kindly disposed towards us, and He just wants to help. That's His graciousness.

On the part of the receiver, the receiver of grace can be gracious as well. It's the sense of the favour bestowed, a feeling of gratitude or thanks, and in this respect it sometimes signifies to be thankful.

That's why we say grace before meals, because we're thankful for the grace that God has given us.

And then there's the other one, the other meaning, and that's the power and equipment for ministry, gifts freely bestowed by God as miracles, prophecy, tongues etc are the gifts of the Spirit, but the graces of the Spirit are also freely bestowed by God.

Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

So we freely approach the throne of grace - because God is gracious and He wants to bestow grace on us - and there we may receive mercy. So we receive mercy and forgiveness of our sins, but we find grace to do what? to help us in our time of need.

So grace is something that we use to help us in our time of need. Okay. Something that we use to help us when we're in a time of need.

Grace to Work

First Corinthians 15 says that God gives us grace to work.

Paul's saying, "I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect, no, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

So the grace of God was actually working through him. He went to the throne of grace, received grace, took it out, and used it to work. Isn't that awesome!

Grace for Missions

Romans 1:5, "Through Him and for His Name's sake we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith."

So we go to the throne of grace and receive grace, and then we go out and tell our friends about God, and it's His grace that we're using to witness. It's His grace that we use when we talk to people about Jesus, and bring them into the Kingdom. It's a supernatural gift.

We talk about gifted preachers but actually what we should be saying is that they are graced preachers. It's not a gift - it's more of a grace - to preach, and to witness for God.

Ephesians 3:8, "Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

The grace was given him to preach to the Gentiles. If you have trouble witnessing to people, ask God for His grace to do it.

Just go before the throne of grace where He's ready and willing and gracious to give it to you.

You just have to ask Him for that grace!

The Grace of Giving

Then there's grace for giving.

Second Corinthians 8:6 says, "So we urged Titus since he had earlier made a beginning to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part..." - the grace of giving - "...but just as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace [of giving]."

So if you're finding it hard to give what God's calling you to give - maybe to tithe - ask Him for His grace, He will grace you to do it.

And you know that you can't outgive God.

If you do give, if you work for God, then He will bless you, and everytime you give to God, He will give back to you.

So we need His grace to start the ball rolling. Okay. We always have to take that first step.

We don't, that's what faith is - stepping out into something that's unknown, something that we're not sure of, and then He will come and bless us and grace us to do it. But we have to take that first step before we see that grace or the giftings come, because otherwise we wouldn't be acting in faith.

Faith is very important to God. We need to trust Him and step out, and then the grace and the giftings will flow.

Grace to Die to Self

Second Corinthians 8:9 says, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."

So we need grace to step out like Jesus did and die to self. We absolutely need to be graced to do that.

So we need to go before the throne of grace and say, "Lord give me grace. I can't do this in my own strength. Please grace me to do that."

Grace to Receive

Then we even need grace when we're receiving.

Second Corinthians 9:8, "And God is able to make all grace about to you so that in all things at all times having all you need you will abound in every good work."

So grace abounds to us. That means there's no boundaries on it. There's so much of it to come to us so that we will abound in every good work.

Do you want to do lots of good works? We can abound in good works because God graces us to do it.

"...so that in all things at all times having all you need..."

All you need. So we have all the grace we need. We have all the equipment we need. We have all the money we need to do what we need to do for God. We abound in it! Isn't that fantastic.

We go before the throne of grace and receive His grace.

Grace to Endure

II Corinthians 12:9. This is Paul speaking again. He had what he called a thorn in the flesh - I believe it was a really annoying person, something like a pain in the neck, and he said three times he went to God, he said, "Please, remove it! Get rid of this person out of my face."

And God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

"Therefore I will boast all the more glady about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me."

So God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you," or enough for you, that's all you need, to deal with these things.

You know, as a Christian we don't get removed from all our problems, they don't just all go away like magic, do they? We still have problems as Christians.

And if you think you're gonna be a Christian and not have problems, you're going to be very frustrated, you'll get cross with God, and then you'll probably lose your salvation and you won't be a Christian. So don't think that you're going to live the Christian life free of problems.

And you know why we have problems? Because they develop our character. And we learn and grow and become mature as we face obstacles and learn how to deal with them and cope with them in our daily life.

And God will not remove them, but He will grace us to endure them, or to cope with them, to deal with them, or whatever the case may be - He will grace us to do that.

And then as we use His grace, we grow, and our character becomes very mature. Hallelujah!

Grace is Recognizable

Galatians 2:9. You can even recognize grace when it's on someone.

"James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me Paul, and Barnabas, the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews."

They recognized the grace, they recognized that Paul and Barnabas were equipped with the grace of God to go to the Gentiles and preach the Gospel and get them saved. They recognized that grace on them.

Grace is Apportioned by Christ

Ephesians 4:7, it say, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it."

He gives it as He wills. It's His to give and He gives it to us.

First Timothy 1:14, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."

Poured out abundantly. We go before the throne of grace and say, "Lord, pour your grace on me." He'll give it to you abundantly.

Grace Makes Us Strong

Second Timothy 2:1, "You then my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It makes us strong in character.

Grace Keeps Us From Deception

Hebrews 13:9, it says, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods which are of no value to those who eat them."

We Can Grow in Grace

And Peter said, "Be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men..." men who don't believe in the Law, "...because I don't want you to lose your secure position, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen."

So we can grow in grace as well. We can grow in it as we choose to use it, step out and walk in it, we grow in it, and we become more and more graceful. Full of grace.

Grace to Overcome Sin

So when we say we're not under the Law but we're under grace, it doesn't mean that God is just turning a blind eye to sin; and I think that, I absolutely believe that some people think that.

And I don't want you to think that. Because I don't want to be responsible when you get to the pearly gates and you knock on them and St Peter said"

"No, you kept on sinning, you can't come in".

And you say, "But I wasn't under the Law, I was under grace,"

Peter say, "No, that doesn't mean God's gonna turn a blind eye to sin, that just means He's equipping you to live without sin."

That grace is such a higher law than the Law - the Old Law - the Ten Commandments. When Jesus came He said, "Well you've heard it said in the, you know the old Law, that you don't commit adultery - but I say to you, Don't even look on someone in lust. You've heard it say, Don't commit murder. That's the old Law. But I say to you, Don't even hate anyone, or be rude to anyone."

That's the new Law. It's so much higher over the old Law. So much more difficult to do. And it's absolutely impossible - this one was impossible, the Bible says this one was impossible for the people to keep. They couldn't. Not one person kept the old Law until Jesus came along. He was the first one and only, that could ever keep the old Law.

But we're not under the old Law but we are under grace. But we've got to get up there which is a far higher standard than the old Law was - and we can't do it in our own strength, but we can do it with the grace of God.

That's why the New Testament is absolutely full of the grace of God. When you read all the letters in the New Testament they all end up with something like, "And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you" - because they're the three things, three things we need, to absolutely do what the letter's been asking us to do.

The grace of God that equips us to do what God wants us to do, the love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts, that we take-on that divine, loving nature of God, that sheds abroad love for everyone else, and Jesus said that this whole Law depends on those two commandments to love God and love our neighbour. So if the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, it's easy to do that.

And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. "If we walk in the Spirit," Paul said, "we will not fulfill the lusts of the old nature," but we will be able to live the way God wants us to live, if we're walking in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

He's telling us what to do, what not to do - check in the spirit - "That's wrong" - "Yes go for it, that's right, that's exciting." So we need to walk in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Doctor R. T. Kendall, who was a great theologian from Westminster Chapel in London, he said this:

"When God declared the Old Covenant obsolete, He wasn't throwing-in the towel in the battle against sin, rather He was revealing a new and better way for us to deal with it in our daily lives."

Revealing a new and better way for us to deal with sin in our daily lives.

So He's not turning a blind eye to it. How anyone could even think that, when it cost Jesus everything - because God was just, God was merciful - and Jesus in His grace died on the cross for us. It was a very, very costly thing to deal with sin.

But when He did that, He opened the way to the throne of grace because that curtain in the temple was torn in two from top where God was, to the bottom, so that we could access that throne of grace and the grace of God could be given to us so that we can reach those high standards.

But we need to believe for it, we need to press in to get it, and we need to walk in it. Hallelujah.

Grace to Forgive

Forgiveness is one of the main reasons we need grace I think, because bad things happen to us all the time, things that we don't deserve. Bad things happen to good people, let's face it.

So we need to forgive, because if we don't forgive, God won't forgive us, number one - Jesus said we need to forgive so He can forgive us, because we reap what we sow, don't we? So we need to be forgiving.

But not only that, unforgiveness makes us bitter, nasty, horrible people, if we hold on to unforgiveness.

And so we need God's grace, it's actually stuff He forgives us with, and it's also stuff that He can give us to enable us to forgive other people.

Pastor Richard told us last week about the woman that was in the concentration camp in Germany during the War, Corrie ten Boom, she was a Dutch lady and she was in with her sister, and her sister actually died in the prison camp because the warden was so horrible and nasty and brutal to them.

And then afterwards she was preaching about forgiveness and this warden came up the aisle, and she did not want to forgive.

And then all of a sudden she was flooded with the grace of God and she was able to pray with this person and forgive them.

So it's absolutely a supernatural thing. And it's not what we think of as a gift normally, but the grace of God is that supernatural stuff He gives us to enable us to do those things that we can't do in our own strength.

Victoria you had a situation where you had to forgive someone and it was really difficult, come and share with us about that.

Because you know sometimes really bad things happen to us and it's not an easy thing to forgive, but until we do, we're tied to that person that's hurt us, and we need to cut the past off and move on into victory, don't we.

Victoria:

"Thank you. Hearing what Pastor Erica has said has opened up a new side to it to me as well.

Um I was just sharing about what forgiveness has done to me. I had to forgive someone who'd done a lot of harm to me, and um so I did forgive them.

But an aspect that - after we've gone through the 'Bait of Satan', and all the teachings on forgiveness, when I was working in the Recovery Ministries, and I really, I can, yep, when I think about it, recall the pain I had and recall what hurt me and point is when I forgave this person um there was no repentance, the person has no repentance, there's no admission of any sort of responsibility for any sort of pain.

So that's not going to come into it, ever. It's been pointed out by quite a few people, that repentance is needed - not myself, other people that have witnessed. And it's just not considered at all.

So repentance doesn't come into it, of the other person. I had to forgive beyond that repentance.

But God has healed those memories. That pain is not in my life anymore.

I can recall those things facilitating, and people were bringing up their problems and things that affected them - and I found myself thinking, 'Yeah, I know what that feels like, I went through that.'

I didn't remember I had gone through that. And there's another aspect that God gives us when we release the forgiveness, which is - He sort of takes the memory of the thing that's hurt you away.

It doesn't go, but it doesn't hurt you anymore. It's not in your life. I can remember them - at an effort - because it's not an issue.

Uh, this person is a member of the family, I keep seeing the person, they keep doing exactly the same thing to me that gave me the pain - but it doesn't hurt anymore.

And other people witness it, and they come up and say, "Oh! How did you go?"

And I'm saying, "What? What are you talking about?" Because it's not in me anymore. That reaction is no longer there. God's grace has come through and He's just nullified all of that. That is not a part of my life anymore.

And that's a side of forgiveness that I didn't realize, until a couple of months ago, that we don't know about: everything talks about us forgiving other people - but God does something inside you when you forgive, and He takes the pain away.

They can inflict the same injuries, they can say and do the same hurtful things - the pain's not there.

You don't take it on. It's sort of, the grace protects you.

I just encourage you - forgive and receive the setting free. The pain goes!"

[applause]

Hallelujah. I've had very similar experiences to that myself, and I'm sure some of you have as well.

It's so, so important to set yourself free from the past, by forgiving, and cutting off all those dead donkeys from the past.

So we must, after you've done it a few times you'll walk in it - because it's very releasing. Then you won't even start to hold on to things that have affected you and offended you. You'll just walk in forgiveness.

As soon as someone does something, you just forgive them instantly. And you walk in that grace of God, and you're totally free.

So I would definitely recommend that we all do that, all the time. Hallelujah.

Receive the Grace You Need

I'll just tell you a little story now, this is from the 14th century:

"Two brothers fought for the right to rule over a Dukedom in what's now Belgium. The eldest brother's name was Reynold but he was commonly called Krasis, a Latin nickname meaning fat, for he was horribly obese.

After a heated battle Reynold's younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him and assumed the title of Duke over his lands.

But instead of killing Reynold, Edward devised a curious imprisonment: he had a room in the castle built around Krasis, a room with only one door.

The door wasn't locked, the windows weren't barred, and Edward promised Reynold that he could regain his land and his title anytime he wanted to. All he would have to do is leave the room of his imprisonment.

The obstacle to freedom was not in the doors or the windows but with Reynold himself. Being grosely overweight he couldn't fit through the door even though it was of near normal size.

All Reynold needed to do was diet down to a smaller size, then walk out a free man with all he had before his fall.

However his younger brother kept sending him an assortment of tasty foods and Reynold's desire to be free never won over his desire to eat.

Somebody accused Duke Edward of being cruel to his older brother, but he would simply reply, 'My brother isn't a prisoner - he may leave when he wills.'

But Reynold stayed in that room for ten years until Edward himself was killed in battle.

What an accurate picture showing the experience of many Christians. Jesus has set them forever free legally and they may walk in that freedom from sin whenever they choose, but since they keep yielding their bodily appetites to the service of sin, they live a life of defeat, discouragement, and imprisonment."

Jesus died on the cross and that curtain was forever torn from top to bottom. Now we can boldly enter into that throne of grace and receive the grace we need in times of need. All we have to do is press in and get it.

"But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law." But you're under grace, we're under the power of grace.

We just need to access it, and use it, to be free - to be free from all those discouraging, horrible things that hold us down, and set us back, and disappoint us.

So I would encourage you to go boldly to the throne of grace to find that grace you need to help.

God is a God of mercy and justice, and mercy and justice come together at the cross - Jesus came full of grace and truth.

He tells us the truth, He tells us in the sermon on the mount what God's expectations are - but then He has the grace, He gives us the grace to actually rise to that, and enables us to do it.

Conclusion

Now if there's anyone here who has never come to God and asked for mercy, you've never come before the Judge and said, "Please give me mercy, I need to be set free," now's your opportunity just to do that.

I just want to give you the opportunity right now to come.

Anyone that wants to come before God now and say:

"Please have mercy on me and forgive me for my sins" - because God is just, and if you come and ask for forgiveness, He wants nothing more than to give it, and He will set you free today, and bring you into His family.

Orchestra:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me....

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now, I see.