Embracing Grace: Communion, Joseph, and God's Favor

"And here in a moment we're going to read some scriptures, and then we'll go ahead and our ushers will serve communion this morning, praise the Lord. I want to welcome everybody here in the congregation, but also those in Kentucky and those in the local area as well to take communion with us. And now our new family there in the Carolinas, in Merriam, North Carolina, Sam Dennis Bradley. I've mentioned before that he's helped me with broadcasts through the years, and we've done a lot through YouTube and a whole series of messages. He's on Mandate TV that we did, and he's rebroadcasting and maybe even broadcasting live this morning. But we want to welcome them in. We've been there to Merriam, North Carolina, and ministered to some of the folks there. And I remember one of the gentlemen that we ministered to, he was a man of God. He's gone home to be with the Lord, but his motto was, God's business is serious business." [00:00:15]

"And so we just love that, and it's true. We enjoy the presence of God, worshiping Him, but there's times when we need to reverence God, right? I mean, that should be on our hearts all the time. But when we come into the sanctuary, as we do, there's a time to rejoice and laugh, but there's a time to have reverence and fear before Him. And what we're talking about is respect, not to me, but to God Almighty. Amen? And ultimately, if you're receiving and listening to my instructions, the man of God, when he speaks, we should all be reverent. We should also respect that level of that because of the anointing, only because of the anointing. Amen? And we don't want to quench the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is gentle. He's a gentleman. He's here to minister to us in this time of communion and the preaching of the unmerited favor of God." [00:01:21]

"The Bible tells us in several parts here in the Scripture about doing in remembrance of the Lord and what He did for us. And we see in 1 Corinthians, for instance, 11 .24, and this is in the ESV, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body. This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And we can see in 1 Corinthians 11 .25, is in the ESV in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me and we can also see in first Corinthians 11 28 let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread that drink of the cup and that's important when we come to this part of our supper table here before the Lord taking the communion that we examine ourselves and we look inside and we see if there's anything we need to lay down before the Lord and that's nothing of condemnation or guilt but it is important that before we take that we examine our hearts and we always mention this it's important that if you're not saved if you don't know the Lord be blessed born again right now, and then take communion." [00:02:51]

"You know, the first thing we see and know in the Scripture was the Last Supper. And Jesus explained what was happening. They didn't understand it about eating. They didn't understand the pain of His body or taking of His blood. But later, after His death, burial, and resurrection, they understood in totality at the resurrection of Jesus. I mean, they were obedient, but it was sort of like, what in the world? You know, now we know it's not hard for us to do it. But, you know, when you're sitting there at the Lord's Supper and He's explaining that, it's like, what does all this mean? Wasn't Jesus good about that? You know, explaining, but then demonstrating. And then now we're sitting there, and we understand that what really happened was that Jesus had to die on the cross, but before that, He was beaten, whipped, His body, you know, the stripes He took, beard plucked out, all the torturous things He went through. Then He went to Calvary, hung on the cross, and He died there on that cross for the redemption of our sins and salvation. That's eternal life. Amen. Isn't that good? Not just for forgiveness of sins, but that we may receive eternal life. The ultimate Lamb. He knew no sin, but He was made sin." [00:07:52]

"that we might become what the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus but after he said it's finished he went to hell he took the keys of hell and death away from the grave he rose amen and then you know he he said let me there's a whole series of events that took place there but the point of it is he came out of the grave the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead amen the Holy Spirit dwells in you that are born again and now he's seated at the right hand of the Father you know there were some things in the in that place there when he actually you remember Thomas I'm gonna believe once I put my hands in his side you know and into and into his palms you know which would then well they say the palms but it actually the stakes went in between here because this would have ripped that flesh right here it had to go into that right back there and that's what happened below below the hand you see what I'm getting at because otherwise this was flesh would have just ripped but anyway nevertheless he said he goes I'll believe once I see you know and but you know the the fact of it is is he was only believing once he he touched a man but we we believe by faith everything that said right we don't have doubt do we amen we believe we receive and receive and we walk by faith and not by sight and we know when we take this element we are identifying with the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ in this body this bread what he took in that torturous body also gives us not only spiritual healing but physical healing and that good news I've got a message I preach on called the back side of the cross so many times we talk about the front the part of salvation but healing is a part of salvation and because of his stripes it says by the stripes of Christ we're. All healed his body went through something for us I sat on a man father now we have examined I know that these folks have been examining looking inside of themselves in the heart of each and every person today and Lord this element we touch it as a point of contact of faith today and we do this some remember that you said. One of my. body eat and we bless this bread and we believe that healings our portion and we take it now bless it Lord and Jesus name is your body amen" [00:09:10]

"let us pray hallelujah hallelujah come on let's just stand up and even those online get out of your couch amen get out of your chair and stand up join us and just lift our hands towards heaven amen just make an act of faith right now and just say praise you we thank you lord we give you the glory and praise and honor hallelujah we thank you for the anointing of the holy ghost we thank you for the power of god moving through our bodies that same spirit hallelujah that raised christ from the dead dwells in me and has quickened my mortal body in the name of jesus from the top of our head to the soles of our feet and all the way around spirit soul and body in jesus name amen and amen you may be seated today god bless you hallelujah praise god hallelujah glory glory glory wowie thank you jesus thank you jesus well we're continuing in part three and we're going to finish up lord willing today on the unmerited favor of god and last week and the week before we went through several chapters and we talked about the pit to the prison to the palace which is the story of joseph and also you know that that's a wonderful read genesis 37 through 50" [00:13:39]

"Now, we also talked about 2 Corinthians 12, 9. And he said unto me, My grace... He says, what? Sufficient for thee. And what have we been talking about? Some of you... Let me see the hands of people that have been here for one session. One of these sessions. Okay, at least one. What about two? What about three? All right. So there's different ones that have been here for all. Some that have been online have listened to all three, Lord willing. And so some of this may be redundant, but it's worth repeating. But, you know, God's grace is sufficient in all ways. But when we look at this 2 Corinthians 12, 9, what did we say after grace that we want to bracket any time that we read the Bible, we're going to do what? What are we going to put behind grace? Thank you, Mike. Pastor Mike." [00:16:38]

"So now we hear that as the definition, but it's so much deeper than that because we want to practice grace. We don't want to just receive it, but we want to know how to move in the favor of God. He's given it to us. We know that when we're saved, it's a gift. Amen? The Bible says we are saved what? By faith through grace. So you know, what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Well, we know that grace has to be there because it's a free gift right but somewhere in there we have to acknowledge and how does faith come well how does somebody that's a sinner have faith to even believe to be saved so think about this really if you slow down and really think about it it's a gift right but why does it say that we we confess what confession is made unto salvation so you know it's sort of like a dual action here we're saved by grace through faith but it's not by your own faith or it wouldn't be a gift right it's not by your own natural faith see there's a lot of people that have mouthed the salvation prayer but there's not been any change on the inside come on you can't you can't mouth Christianity you can't be a mouther of Christianity you can't be a mouther of Christianity you can't be a mouther of Christianity you can't be a mouther of Christianity you can't be born again by just mouthing it you have to live the life and that's where it becomes a doer of the word and what where we see people's fruit and I've said this over and over again I'm not a fruit inspector but can you ever see people that are saved you say well how do you know whether they're saved or not that well they prayed the prayer no what about the fruit because it's in the character and grace will help us with this but it's in the character of the fruit that's being produced that you can see by their actions whether they're saved or not well I'll tell you that one Christian the other day I was in the grocery store he said he was a Christian and he cussed he's going to hell no come on let's stop for a minute his grace is sufficient for thee come on give him some space amen but you know now if they just we've talked about this before in this message and we know the person there the Virgin Islands when Bec and I were down there he asked what religion and we discussed it everything we said well we're charismatic he goes oh I'll tell you one thing those Charismatics down here in the Virgin Islands they go jumping around through Sunday morning and all excited and doing all kinds of things im prophesying and then they live like the devil the rest of the week well he was a Pentecostal holiness man and that that's okay I'm not against that but a lot of Charismatics they haven't come in and followed him and Pastor Technology it's a beauty of everything this fullness of walking the word and what it is in holiness right because really grace you can't be holy did you know that well it says be holy from holy through the grace of God you can amen through the unmerited favor unearned undeserved favor of God amen you can become holy but in ourselves we cannot be holy no matter how hard we act try to pretend or whatever what we're going to fail every time but by his unmerited favor his grace it says" [00:17:43]

"God chases the lost, and I'm going to close in this thing on grace so we really get it here in a moment. God chases the lost for salvation. God chases the lost for salvation, and He does it through the Holy Spirit. You who are saved were lost. We know this. The grace of God chose you first, and you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior. Now listen, this is important with grace. There is only one thing that keeps people out of heaven. One thing. And that is rejecting Jesus and rejecting God. And not accepting this free gift of salvation. Think of grace like this way. Getting an unexpected gift for your birthday. You don't deserve it. Maybe you even forgot it. was your birthday but you friend your friend excuse me comes through with the perfect present that's how god's grace works at a rise without reason just because he loves us it's unmerited favor that makes our hearts swell with joy reminding us of how much we are valued even when we sometimes forget second peter says this and and these are several scriptures i'm going to read i don't know if you can keep up with me but this will give you why we have been chosen the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness but it is long suffering to us word not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance that's second peter three nine titus 2 11 and 2 for the grace of god that bringeth salvation listen to this hath a a a to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world revelation 320 i'm giving you the word behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door i will come into him and will sup with him and he with me and that good first peter 2 9 says this but ye are the chosen generation royal priesthood a holy nation peculiar people that he should go joshua of him who have why called you out of darkness into his marvelous light and i'm going to save this last one in expand on it here in a moment not the definition again of shaluna's in he books of grace is a gift, and I wrote this, from the Father that is given to an individual by the Spirit of grace, which is the Holy Spirit, offering abundant and eternal life." [00:48:04]

"Grace continues, sanctifying the believer who does not want to say the same. Grace through repentance empowers one to change from glory to glory into what? The image of Jesus Christ. Grace, and this is getting in your spirit, I know this. Grace empowers the believer to overcome sin, forgiveness of past, present, and future shortcomings. Wow, even of future sins and shortcomings. even future sins and shortcomings. I'm going to say it again. Even future sins and shortcomings. Grace is there. You say, well, you're saying you don't have to repent. Don't say that I said that. If you go through my other lessons, I cover that thoroughly. But I'm here to tell you why. You don't have to be like the Israelites and keep going around the same sin over and over and over and over again. But if you do, just say, help me, Lord. Empower me by grace. No condemnation." [00:51:18]

"Grace is a gift. Amen. And the gifts of the Spirit are grace to us to operate in them in Jesus' name. Amen. Anybody got any pain in their body today in this church? I want you to lift your hands up right now. I want you to lift it up. Anything, any part in your body, you lift those hands up and you say in Jesus' name, I am healed. I am free. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. I'm the redeemed of the Lord. I am the healed of the Lord. And I'm set free in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, come on, church. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Come on, let's praise Him. Let's sing a shout of praise out to Him. Come on. Thank you, Lord. Hallelujah. Amen. Praise Him. Amen. Lift up a voice of shouting and a triumph in Him. Amen. He's our victor in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Go and be free. See you on Wednesday night for prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah." [00:59:26]