A Testimony of God’s Grace & Mercy

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(00:04) This message this morning is about is not about maybe I should say it that way, my failing story, but it’s about God’s glory. Could we all give the credit to God for everything that’s said here today and for what he has done in all of our lives? I’m sure all of us could stand and give some sort of a testimony of God’s grace, what he has done for you, and you give him the credit and give him the glory.

(00:37) So this morning though, they’ve asked me to share my story and it’s my story. It’s personal to me. You may have done things different than me. Maybe your story unfolds different than mine does. Probably does. But this was my story in Jeremiah 32 I believe verse 27 the question is asked is anything too hard for God? Is anything too hard for God? I know we’re all answering the question the same way.

(01:21) It was answered previous to that where the scriptures say there again in Jeremiah in verse 17 I think it is he says, “There is nothing too hard for God.” We may have been a mess. We may have been in a situation that and came from a situation that just simply it was a mess. And I’m sure there’s testimonies out here that you could say, “I was a mess, but God, but God.”

(01:50) And I know there’s testimonies out here today that say, “We still have things to work through, but God.” Is anything too hard for God? There is nothing too hard for God. And I am a I am a living testimony of that. As my life unfolded, I will say as I look back at it, I am in many ways personally very ashamed of some of the things I did.

(02:26) I was viewed as a Christian. I had committed my heart to the Lord. I had fallen away. But I had — it was a sad story. Not pretty and not glorious. I cannot I’ll tell you this ahead of time. I cannot say,

(02:59) I think Brother Vince was when when he gave his testimony the other day, he said that he began somebody gave him a little New Testament and he tossed it there on his bedside stand and he came home that night or some night and he began to read it. He began to be convicted, began to hear God’s voice through that little Bible. I can’t tell you that that’s what happened to me. We were married in 1976, August 14th, 1976. It was a glorious day.

(03:24) I loved my wife, my bride, and my wife to be. Now, I wanted more than anything else at that point, I think it’s probably true to say, to be married to her. For 12 years, we had what we called and still would look back at it and say it was a little heaven on earth. We enjoyed ourselves. We were in love. We were satisfied.

(03:52) We had a family, a growing family. We were had an occupation we enjoyed. We were farming. And it was we just had a we we would lay in bed at night and we’d just talk and talk and talk. We just it was a glorious time. We had little 12 years of a little heaven on earth. I don’t know. I don’t want to blame anything of my testimony on anybody or anything. It’s it’s my it was my choices.

(04:16) But I would say that we were farming and at that point we was just living on a a rented farm. The land owners, they decided they wanted to sell the farm and we didn’t feel like we could buy the farm at that point. And so of course then we moved off the farm. We got a job working in a a cabinet door factory.

(04:38) We managed that factory for the for the owner. And so that’s where we went. We were, and some of you ladies have already heard my wife’s testimony and some of this may be a little redundant in a way, but this is from my perspective here. At that at that cabinet door factory.

(05:06) I will just say this to you and you can I don’t want you can let your imagination run a bit whatever you don’t need to but I became distracted and was unfaithful to my wife. I am very, very sorry about that. My spiritual life was well I don’t know how you say it. My relationship with the Lord probably a better way to say it was at least neglected if not ignored. At that point we went we what we call our eight hard years and I am so thankful it was only eight again God’s grace for eight years almost eight years we struggled to I struggle well we struggled to come together to

(06:17) get back to where the those those 12 years previous to this to those beautiful times and we just couldn’t make it work. And I want you to know I blame nothing on my wife. It was my fault and my problem. We struggled and we struggled and we struggled. I was in and out of the home. I wasn’t there all the time.

(06:53) There’s something my wife did that I will admit to you may seem a little theologically incorrect, yet at the same time, God used it mightily. We had all of our children by this time. The oldest was 15, 16, I’m not sure, 17, 20, I forget how old she was. 12 maybe, I forget, but old enough that they could see something was wrong. And this is what she did.

(07:30) She told the children, and by their own testimony, they believed her. She said, “This is not daddy. This is the devil. Theologically correct? I don’t know. But I think God used it, truly. It wasn’t God leading me. It was a devil. I’m sure of that. Like I said, there was during that time, those eight years, I was in and out of the home,

(08:10) struggling to, knowing in the back of my mind, knowing what was right, but not doing it. That’s where I was. There came a time then close to the end of that. Of course, I didn’t we didn’t know it was the end of that at that point, but it came a time close to the end of that that I realized, Mark, you have a decision to make.

(08:42) And I realized that I realized at that point then I knew what I wanted. And for me to have what I wanted was going to take something that maybe I didn’t have of myself, but I wanted it. I wanted my wife. I wanted my family back. I did my best, far as I know, I did my best to to after after many broken promises, many broken words, many things that I said I would do and didn’t do and all those kinds of things, I had to restore to her a confidence that I had broken.

(09:29) I didn’t blame her for being untrusting, but I had to restore to her that confidence. So, I began to be very careful with number one, my relationships with other women. I put up a very high wall. Number two, I told her where I was all the time. She knew where I was all the time. And number three, and I’ll get to this later a little bit more, but number three, I truly repented. I was sorry.

(10:09) It was it was real. And I want to say in the in the scriptures, Paul one point, he talks about this thorn in his side and and he went to the Lord three times. He said, “Lord, take this thorn out of my side.” I don’t know what it was. You can conjecture or think of all kinds of things. Maybe somebody knows. I don’t. He prayed three times.

(10:33) The Lord told him, he said this. He said, “My grace is sufficient for you. I am capable of giving you what you need to go to walk through this thing that you’re enduring right now.” And in my at that place and point in that point of time in my life, I wanted more than anything to to have my family back. And I’ll be honest with you and say I wouldn’t I’m not going to claim to say tell you how spiritual I was. And I claimed that promise.

(11:04) I didn’t. I just simply made a choice and I was going to go do this. And God I want to give the credit to God. God is the one who gave me the grace, the power, the impetus, the desire to walk on, to continue walking. I had to prove to my wife that I would be faithful. I had to show to her I was sorry. I had to say show to her that I had repented.

(11:31) That was something I needed to do. My point this morning as we continue to walk through this, my point this morning is well, let me say this. I know, in fact, is I do know, but I also know without knowing all of you, that there’s many hurting people here this morning. I know that. I’m sorry.

(12:09) Some of the Some of you, you need to you need to repent. Some of you need to forgive. Some of you need to accept. My point, my hope, my my desire this morning is that we can walk away from this this message here and we can say there’s hope for me. God is able. There is hope. by the grace of God, I can do it with his help.

(12:39) That’s if I want to if you leave give leave here with nothing else, leave here with that. There’s hope. It may look hard and it may look almost impossible and it may look like it’s somebody else has to do something before I can get freedom and victory. I’m telling you, no, there’s hope. You can. And I stand as the testimony to what God can do in the life of a man of a person who wants to turn around.

(13:02) I wanted to turn around and God gave me the grace to do so. I am eternally thankful for his forgiveness, his mercy and his grace. I’ve said lots of times, I’m depending strongly, maybe entirely upon the mercy of God when I stand before his judgment throne. It’s going to be his mercy. Sure, he’s done it through the blood of Jesus Christ, and I accept that. But that’s his mercy.

(13:34) I have written on my notes here, never give up and never say die. Never give up and never say die. God can. You make the decision. God helps you make the decision. God gives you grace and power then to to continue to do what is right. So, some of you are here, you’ve been mistreated. Some of you here, someone has said or done something to you that it just hurts. It’s just maybe not true.

(14:04) Maybe it is true, yet it still hurts. Some of you here have a have a background, have a situation where you you’ve made some decisions earlier, wrong decisions like I did, and it’s still hurting. I know that’s the case. I don’t I don’t say that to be discouraging to anybody. I’m just saying I just want you to understand that God understands.

(14:30) It’s true. Some of you here are victim of some traumatic event. Maybe, like me, your spouse has been unfaithful to you or you have a guilty conscience. Well, as I’ve already said to you, there is a path to healing. And I want to give you some some of the some of the things that I have learned.

(14:53) I think I’ve learned them. Some of the things that are critical in this path. If you want healing, if you want if you want change, if you want to if and I know you do. And you want to walk in the grace of God and you want God to be glorified by your life. I’m going to give you some steps here. I see as some of the things that we have learned as we’ve walked through our situation that are very, very helpful.

(15:16) I think there a a necessary path. I’m not going to ask you today, how many here have a hurt in your heart to raise your hand. I’m not going to ask you to do that. Even just a little hurt, maybe a big hurt, something that’s happened to you and something that’s beyond your control or something that you just simply it hurts.

(15:43) I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, but I’m going to ask you to do this. If you will imagine with me that you’re in a room by yourself and you are going to just simply express a truth. You want to make a make a statement. You know, sometimes when we say things out loud, they make better sense. I’ve I’ve had that happen to me many times.

(16:20) You think something and then you then you say it out loud or say it to somebody else and and it kind of opens up. And I’m going to ask you to do this this morning. It’s a truth whether you believe it or not. This is a truth that is true and we can all say it. I’m going to ask you this morning to close your eyes. Imagine yourself in a room all by yourself. You have wept before God. You have told him all your troubles. You have broken your heart.

(16:46) And you say this, “My or his grace is sufficient.” Can we say that together? His grace is sufficient. Amen. Get that? His grace is sufficient. It’s enough. It’s enough to do what all he needs to do and what all you need him to do. God’s grace is sufficient. I want to look a little bit at some of the some of the Bible characters and I don’t I don’t want to take a lot of time here because we all know them. But here we are.

(17:22) You know, probably some of the deepest hurts that’s in our hearts. Some of the deepest hurts are are is betrayal. It’s the betrayal of friends or family or somebody you trusted. They betrayed you. They let you down. they did something they shouldn’t have done that that hurts probably that’s probably I don’t know maybe there’s others but one thing is betrayal when a person you trust has totally walked away let you down we can look at Paul he says there in Second Corinthians he says are they ministers of Christ, I speak as a fool, he says, I am more in labors more abundant in stripes

(18:08) above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths often. It goes on and says in perils by mine own countrymen. He has been put into perilous places because of his own his own friends his own people betrayed him let him down in perils among false brethren.

(18:31) But you know what he says then he says if I must needs glory I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities. Those things that hurt, he’s going to glory in those things because God’s grace is sufficient. God’s grace is sufficient. In weariness and painfulness, it goes on. But if I must needs glory, I will glory in the things that hurt because God’s grace is sufficient.

(18:56) That’s that’s a that’s a that’s something that the human mind is a bit hard to comprehend. How can I be so glory? How can I be so happy, so glad for the things that hurt so bad? That’s what Paul did. That’s what we can do because God’s grace is sufficient. One of my Bible favorite Bible characters, not the not probably the most favorite one, but one of them is Joseph. And you all know the story here.

(19:24) He was he was what was he 17 years old or so, and he’s sold into Egypt by his brothers, betrayed by his brothers. They hated him. They got rid of him. He went down into Egypt there. He’s he was sold as a slave there and and and his his employer’s wife was was a evil woman and she betrayed him also and he was put in prison and he didn’t do anything wrong.

(19:46) He did everything right but he but he was put in prison and he served there. I think it was 13 years I think they say that he was he was there in prison before he was brought out and given the place that he was. I just want to reiterate this just a little.

(20:07) The other day I was listening to I think Brother Grant speaking about his his story and he said he asked God why God why? Where were you? And I believe he said his answer was I have a plan for you. I’d like to I’d like to also encourage all of us this morning. Regardless where we’re at, God has a plan for you. You are not left to just wander and maybe it’ll work out okay. God is there for you.

(20:37) He knows the beginning from the end. He has a plan. He knows. He knows where you what you’ll go through. He knows where you’ll end up. He knows all the all the things you’ll have to suffer. God has a plan. And His grace is sufficient. He’s able. So here we are with Joseph. He served those those 13 years he was there in the prison and and and the times of of affliction. Then he was given a place far above he could ever even imagine.

(21:13) David, we all know he fled from Saul for about 10 years. He just simply was constantly hunted down. God had told him already he would be king. Now here he was being chased by the king, being wanted to be destroyed. He was he was here and he was like, “How much greater betrayal can you have?” It felt to him I don’t suppose it did.

(21:35) I can imagine. Okay, I’ll put it myself in that position. I could well have thought where are you God? I thought I was going to be king and here I am doing this and my life might be taken tomorrow. God has a plan. His grace is sufficient. For those of you who are suffering and struggling and wondering how can this go on and how can I do this and how can I keep going and and what is my end going to be? God’s grace is sufficient. He was sufficient in my life. And I didn’t even and I and and I didn’t even know at that

(22:10) time I was not seeking maybe I said this but I’ll say it again. I didn’t even know I was asking for God’s grace. I just simply wanted my family back. I had to make a decision. And I say this, this is my testimony. I believe I don’t want to take anything away from God. It was not me. It was God. When I decided I wanted to come back, God was there helping me. And I didn’t even know it.

(22:35) I don’t know if that’s theor theologically or theoretically correct or not, but I’m going to give God the credit for that. When I look back at my life, those those eight years were good. Those 12 years were good years. Those eight next eight years were hard years. Now the next 30 years, that’s been 30 years ago.

(23:12) Now the next 30 years, we’ve grown. We’ve changed. Our love has deepened. It becomes a it becomes a it’s it’s still okay. Some of you have just been married. I’m going to give I’m going to say this to you and you can do with it what you want, but I’m going to say this after having been married 50 years. Your love is somewhat it’s more superficial than it will be as we have progressed through our years.

(23:40) And maybe maybe those eight hard years gave us something that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. And I’m gonna I’d never want to do go through it again. But I’m thankful I have what I have today. My my love for my wife, my love for my family. It’s deeper.

(23:59) I suppose maybe deeper because of what I went through, but don’t go through it to get that deep. You can have that depth without that. But that’s where it is. And we can look at Christ, Jesus himself. Talk about betrayal. Everybody forsook him and fled. There was nobody to stand by Him, nobody to support Him, nobody with Him. He was a man. I’ll grant you he was God, but He was a man at that point.

(24:24) And he went through those things and he felt the things we would have felt also had we go had we had to go through those things. But what we have is Christ knows all of our afflictions. He knows, excuse me, he knows how we feel. He knows what hurts. He knows how bad it hurts. And he knows also that he can give you the grace.

(24:49) He can help you walk through those things because he’s been through them himself. Trust him for that. You know, we say God has a plan and he does. And we look at we look at God’s plan and even the way maybe your life is unfolding or has unfolded in the past or we look at his whole plan of salvation. Look at that and say I mean here he was he he created a man in the garden and and he gave them a beautiful place and he walked with them in the cool of the day and I mean what more could you ask for? They chose to disobey.

(25:28) And we look at that and say, I mean, and he and he knew that the lamb was slain from the foundation of the world and and he knew that’s what was going to happen. God knew it was going to happen. Well, probably you and I wouldn’t have planned it that way. I would never plan my life to have a hard hard eight hard years in it.

(25:48) I would never plan my life to some of the things that you you would never plan your life the way the way your life has maybe has been. Maybe you wouldn’t plan it that maybe you would maybe you wouldn’t. And we in fact we actually prove to ourselves that we wouldn’t choose that way because we the way we pray and not critical the way we pray. We pray right. We pray Lord protect us. We pray Lord heal us.

(26:11) We pray Lord help us, lead us, guide us, comfort us, give us grace. We pray those kind of things in essence saying we don’t we don’t want to go through some of these things that we may have to go through. We want a perfect plan. We want a smooth plan. It’s the way we pray. It’s right to pray that way. But in praying that way, it seems to me like what we’re saying is we wouldn’t have planned it that way.

(26:41) But God But God, I don’t know what’s going through all your minds right now. I have no idea. But somehow I’d like to help and and promote this idea and help you to understand God’s grace is sufficient. If we’ll continue to trust him, it will be okay. And someday, and I’ve said this lots of times, I’ll say it again. Someday, what I want to hear, what you want to hear is well done.

(27:16) Well done. Not barely made it, didn’t you? No. You want to hear well done. I mean, that to me, that is a conclusive statement. You’re done. It’s over. And you’ve done it well. That’s what I want to hear. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And I know you want to hear that truth that too. Now I want to talk a little bit about those three. Those three things I think are steps to take in a path to healing.

(27:57) Forgiveness. I’ll say it this way first. forgiveness, repentance, and acceptance work. It’s God’s way. Forgiveness, maybe repentance, I don’t know which one’s first, that they’re two different sides. Forgiveness, repentance, and acceptance. And I’ll explain them. Forgiveness. There was a point in my life that I don’t know if forgiveness is what was needed. I’ll call it forgiveness where where I asked myself and and in fact others asked me the same thing.

(28:39) They said, “Mark, are you sure you’re not bitter? Are you sure you have totally forgiven? Have you totally let loose? Have totally released?” And I said, “Well, I think I have. I don’t think I’m bitter. Through a series of events and things that happened, and I’m not going to go into that detail, it came to a place where I knew I was not bitter.

(29:10) So I would suggest to you just a suggestion you you it may be different for you but I would suggest to you if you’re not sure something has happened in your life and there’s somebody’s done something and they shouldn’t have done it or they they should have done it and didn’t it’s kind of easy maybe to have that little resentment build up in your own heart and we call it bitterness call it unforgiveness.

(29:32) came to a point in my life at one point they would ask me, “Mark, are you sure you’re not bitter?” I said, “I didn’t think so.” But after I went through a season of accusations, not quite the right word, but I’ll say that because accusations sounds like it’s maybe not true.

(29:56) Well, some of these accusations possibly and probably were true. After I went through a season of that, I realized after I’d worked through those things and it was about another brother. I worked with that brother and some others came to the place where I can say now I know I’m not bitter. Something happened. Something happened in my heart by the grace of God. Something happened in my heart that said I completely accept.

(30:23) I repent. I forgive and I accept what is I took I’m I didn’t do it all right. Please understand I’m not promoting myself but I took all the responsibility on myself that I possibly could and said it’s my fault and I repented and I forgave. Now I know. So if you don’t know, I’d encourage you go back and look, make sure you have forgiven.

(30:58) Make sure you don’t have any grudge or feelings against that person or the situation. Make sure you don’t and I think you can walk in peace. That’s my testimony on that way. Forgiveness. Jesus said himself, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

(31:21) But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. My wife forgave me. She forgave me all along. She says, “I never held anything against you. I was it was a it was a living in a state of forgiveness.” That’s the grace of God, too. But if you don’t forgive, you won’t be forgiven.

(31:48) I know. I know there’s a possibility here that there’s somebody sitting out there that has not forgiven and I urge you. It’s not worth it. You know, my wife has written on our blackboard at home. She says she wrote, I don’t know where she got this. Maybe she made it up. I don’t know.

(32:15) For us, all of us here, absolutely every one of us in probably a hundred years, okay, maybe 110 to catch every catch the newborns. We who love the Lord, have given our life to the Lord, we’ll be in heaven. In 210 years, we’ll be in heaven. In 500 years, we’ll be in heaven. In a million years, we’ll be in heaven. So now let’s look at our problems today.

(32:46) It just might change your perspective a bit. They could be pretty small. Deal with them. Forgive. Forgive. If we don’t forgive, we put ourselves in a cage and we just simply waiting for the other person to open it. No, we have the key. We can open it. We can we can forgive and it’s all clear.

(33:17) Forgiveness works. Repentance is another thing. That’s the other side of the transgression or sin. Forgiveness is when they’ve done something you you need to forgive them of. Repentance is when you have done something to God or to somebody else. When you repent. One of the first things Jesus said when he came here was repent for the kingdom of God is at or the kingdom is at hand.

(33:42) I’ve heard it said before and I think there’s some truth in it. No repentance, no forgiveness, no deliverance. No repentance, no forgiveness, no repentance, no deliverance. Jesus clearly talked about repenting. Peter as in the in the book of Acts there he says repent and be baptized every one of you and again he says repent ye therefore and be converted genuine thorough heartfelt surrender to the consequences repentance let me say that again genuine repentance thorough repentance heartfelt repentance

(34:23) surrender to the consequences repentance surrender to the consequences I may have to make a confession and there may be some conse consequences to it. Surrender to that. That’s repentance. It doesn’t matter what happens. I just I am sorry and I’m I am releasing it. I am I am letting you know and I am I’m asking I want to do right. I am sorry.

(34:48) Repentance also needs to reach the level of the transgression. You might do something to somebody. You might steal somebody’s hammer and you might go back to them and say, “I’m sorry I stole your hammer.” And then walk away. Well, I suppose there’d be reason to question how thorough and how genuine that was.

(35:18) Maybe it was, but it needs to reach the level of the of the transgression. In other words, I can’t just say, “I’m sorry.” I need to be specific. What did I do wrong? Exactly. And I need to go to that person or I need to go to God and say this is my sin. I need to repent with a complete open heart surrendered to the consequences type of repentance.

(35:46) Willing to sacrifice anything that it takes to pay the debt whatever that takes. Repentance is because you have incurred a debt, willing to pay whatever it takes to pay the debt. Repentance. Now, this may need some some qualification, but I’m going to give this to you for whatever it’s worth to you. Repentance reckons it done.

(36:13) Pays the debt and reckons it done. Forgiveness clears the debt. There’s a place for both. Two different sides. repentance. You pay what you know, what you owe. You give back to that person. You you give them what they deserve. Whatever it takes, whatever sacrifice it means. Forgiveness on the other hand clears the debt. It’s work to do both.

(36:44) And the third one is Acceptance. This one is because some things will not change. Things happen in life. I cut my hand. I have a little scar here on my hand. You can’t see it. I was a steel fabricator, and we had a piece of steel and it fell across my arm and cut my arm there a little bit and it created a scar that’ll probably never go away. I have a scar from here to here in my chest. I had heart surgery about four years ago.

(37:17) That scar will probably never go away. It’s there to stay. I have to accept that fact. I don’t have a choice. It’s going to be there. Acceptance. Some things never change. You can repent. You can forgive. But the scar will remain. Now I want to be I want to say this also that God in his in his way can take the things you have done or maybe somebody’s done something to you and my wife can testify to this that what I’ve done to her no longer hurts. It’s a fact but it but it’s over. It’s gone. It’s done. She accepted my repentance. she’s forgiven and it’s done.

(38:09) There are also sometimes but but we can’t change the fact that what happened happened. That’s what I have to accept. And sometimes that’s a bit hard for me to be honest with you. Sometimes I still, and I could do it now if I let myself. I’ll try not to. It still hurts. And I’m still sorry. But we just have to accept it.

(38:44) Some things if we don’t accept it, it’s going to be still that that that thing back there that keeps niggling at us. Why’ this have to happen? Why me? And and and you can get free of that by accepting what is. There’s a little poem that Amy Carmichael wrote. “In acceptance lieth peace, oh my heart be still.

(39:14) Let thy restless worries cease and accept His will. Though this test be not thy choice, it is His. Therefore rejoice. In His plan there cannot be but ought to make thee sad. If this is His choice for thee, take it and be glad. Make from it some lovely thing to the glory of thy king. Cease from sighs and murmuring. Sing his loving grace. This thing means thy furthering to a wealthy place.

(39:47) From thy fears he’ll give release. In acceptance lieth peace.” There’s a little, you’ve probably heard of the serenity, the serenity poem, I think it is. I’m not sure what it’s called. Well, we we we’ve changed it a bit and and suggest you look at it this way. God, give me the serenity or the grace to accept the person I cannot change.

(40:14) God, help me to accept the person I cannot change. the courage to change the one I can and the wisdom to know that it is me. I’m the one I’m the one that can change me. I can look out at somebody else and you can look at whoever you may whatever and say if they would only if they would just do this. Maybe you can’t change that but you can change you and have a different spirit attitude towards them. a repentant, a forgiving spirit and attitude.

(40:49) One time I heard a man say, and as far as I know, he’s still saying this and it’s a sad situation. I heard a man say, “I’m just waiting on God to do something. I’m waiting on God to do something.” And you know what? He’s still waiting. And he’s still in his same state. His marriage is not good. He’s in a He’s tormented.

(41:20) I’m going to suggest to you, you’re not waiting on God. God is waiting on you. The devil never wants you to feel either forgiven. He doesn’t want you to feel forgiven. He doesn’t want you to repent. He doesn’t want He wants you to stay right where you are. If you are in any kind of a miserable state or any kind of a situation where you’re not at peace and there’s problems, he wants you to stay there.

(42:08) He wants that thing to niggle at your heart. He just wants that thing to eat at you. The devil wants you to do that. God wants you to, I believe, go go through these steps. He wants you to forgive if you need to forgive. He wants you to repent if you need to repent. And he wants you to accept what has happened. He wants you to accept not only I didn’t mention this.

(42:29) What? Not only he wants you to accept what can’t be changed, but to accept his forgiveness. Accept him. You know, I have to admit that’s one of the problems I’ve had. Accepting the fact that God does forgive. It’s okay. God is forgiven. It’s true, though. We need to accept God’s forgiveness. In Colossians, Paul says, I’m just going to quote one phrase that he said.

(43:02) He says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, in you, Christ in me, the hope of glory. Because Christ is in me. I have a hope of eternity with him. I have a hope of a glorious future. because of Christ in me. So I’ll say this one more thing. When we accept Christ into a heart and a life and make him the basis of all our directions and our decisions, he will come into you and he’ll make you fruitful for him. This is his mercy and grace.

(43:46) This is his promise. Will you come to him? Will you invite him into your life? Will you accept what he’s willing to give? Let’s all stand for prayer. Lord, as we stand before you this morning, we all here are thankful for your grace that you have given to us. We’re thankful for the promise of your mercy that you have given us.

(44:28) We also, Father, want to just acknowledge you. Show us whatever we need to see that would make us clean if there’s anything unclean in us. I pray, Father, for that that every individual here, every person sitting here that can can understand and has the capabilities of realizing good and bad and right and wrong.

(44:54) I pray, Father, I pray that you would help each one of us to get a hold of the fact that your grace is sufficient. Your grace is capable. You’re you’re able to lead us. You’re able to give us what we need to do to walk in the truth. So, I pray, Father, for every individual here. There’s some here I know are hurting. They’re l they have struggling situations. They have bad situations and and they’re just dealing with these things.

(45:17) I pray, Father, give them the heart. Give them the strength. I pray, Father, give them the courage, the motivation to turn and put their trust in you and say, “Okay, Lord, help me. I’m sorry. I forgive and I accept. for everyone here. May your kingdom come and your will be done in my life, in our lives, so that we might all someday inherit those eternal realms of glory.

(45:53) And I don’t know how it’ll be. I don’t know. But you’ve promised us you’ll be with us until the end of the world. Thank you, Father, for your word, for your promises. Help us. We love you. We want to him someday hear you say to every single one of us, well done. And it’s in Jesus name we pray. Amen.