Strength in Fragility: Embracing God's Grace

1) "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We're hunted down but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down. We are not destroyed through suffering. Our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our bodies. Yeah, we're pressed, but we're not crushed. What happens when you feel that way? And this word pressed in this text here, it means that what happens when life rubs you the wrong way? What happens when maybe circumstances don't turn out the way that you think they should?" [01:51] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "What happens when your expectations and reality are two different things? What do you do in those moments? Because we have this illusion in our culture. We have this illusion that self sufficiency is godliness and it's nothing. Dependence on God produces righteousness and godliness. But we don't view it that way. We think that the more I know and the more I become my own self made man, the more godly that makes me when nothing could be further from the truth." [06:51] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "What does it mean that God's grace is sufficient for me? Now, normally at this time I would give you three points right there. I want to tell you for what we're going to be communicating over these next several weeks. I don't have a clear little, three clever points that if you just put these into practice, your life is going to turn out fine. Don't have it. What does it mean? What does it really, really mean? And this is what we're going to uncover here, probably not only just today, but even next week and the week after." [08:03] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "When I am at my lowest, God's at his best. This is second corinthians, chapter twelve. Even though verse seven says, I've received wonderful revelations from God, Paul was one in the third heavens. He just talks about, he received all these revelations. He couldn't even talk about them, they were so great here. So to keep me from becoming, most translations say conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan, to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Verse eight. Three times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, red letters." [11:37] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Crushed moments bring a response, and there's basically different responses. You can either become bitter and blame. Yeah. You can just quite. Just give up. Yeah, I just give up. This is too hard. Yeah. Or else we can grit our teeth and white knuckle it. I'm going to endure till the end because I'm going to be strong enough. This ain't going to beat me. Or we can receive the grace of God, receive what he is doing inside of us so that we don't get puffed up and proud in and of ourselves. But we know God is doing something in me to show me himself." [17:38] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "So here is something I wanna communicate to you, even though you may be confused. God is not confused. Even though things may not be very clear to you right now, they're very clear to God. He knows what he's doing. He's not up in heaven wringing his hands and looking at Jesus, his son, and looking at the Holy Spirit saying, oh, I don't know what to do with this. God's like, I got you. I got this. Trust me. Look to me not as a genie in a bottle, but somebody who's doing a deep work inside of your heart and life to bring him greater glory and greater honor." [19:33] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "Grace is powerful. It enables us to conquer our weaknesses and yield to God in absolute trust when our circumstances and our character are under fire. It allows us to stand up against the adversary, because I have the grace of God on me. So that's what this is. And it says that that's all you need. It's sufficient. It means it's warding off. It puts a barrier up between you and the enemy. And, yeah, you may feel like you're getting your head beat in, but put up the barrier of grace, which is simple. Trust in God." [22:13] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "See, we think maturity is getting to a place where we don't need him, when actual maturity is that we're growing in a greater trust and reliance, independence and confidence on Goddess. That's what this is. And so every time I have a conflict between where I am and what I think God's will is, it's an invitation to trust in a deeper level. It's an invitation. And right now in your life, you may be going through difficult times, and it's an invitation to trust God." [25:30] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "So what does it mean that my grace is sufficient for me? That means my current circumstances will not define me. God's grace, his unearned, unmerited, undeserved favor is on my life, and I'm trusting him. See, what does that mean? It means I go through hardships, struggles, trials, problems, tests, everything, physically, emotionally, relationally, financially. But every one of them is driving me to God. Every one of them is bringing me to himself. God, you are sufficient. You are all I need." [26:53] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)