How Grace Works

And I was made for this assignment. It needs to be a convertible, it needs to have a back seat, by the midway 17-year-olds. That last criteria, that last bullet point, that was the difficult one to overcome. So I'm looking for cars, and I'm thinking, listen, if we don't know my hobby, like your hobby is watching football, sports, your hobbies, what you do. My hobby is I buy and sell hot rods, like that's what I do for fun. So I'm like, I got you, like I'm going to find it. But everything I came up with was like, no, no. I mean, I was just striking out left and right. And, you know, I like, so I'm like, hey, what about this? Like, that's like a grandma's car. I'm like, that's the point, but whatever. And so, I'm striking out. So I call Mercedes-Benz of Waco. They come to the rescue. I call a friend there. I'm like, hey, do you have a car, need for a parade, needs a back seat, needs to be a convertible. And he's like, I got just the car. So I'm like, awesome. So I drive over to pick up the car. I do not like driving other people's cars. I will say that. Like, that just feels like the weight of responsibility. And so we get there. He shows me the car. It's amazing. I get in it and he's showing me how everything works. He's like, this is, and I, you know, I know cars. I didn't know cars like this. He's like, this is how you, he's like, it's going to be speed bumps. It's like, yeah, it will be in the parking lot. And he goes, okay, this is how you raise and lower the front of the cars. Man, I didn't even know that was the thing, but it is the thing. And then, and he's showing me, he's like, this is, this is how you put up the rear spoiler, put it down, got it. He's like, this is how, like, he shows me how to put the top down. But everything's real specific. So you slide, you have to touch the screen, slide it over. And I let it go too soon. And it's like a transformer. Like, there's like parts of the car that are just up in the air.

You know, and I'm like, he's like, no, you got to wait till it beeps. It's like, okay. He goes, this dial right here is how you put it in the different modes. It's like, right now it's in comfort mode. If you click it here, it's sport mode, sport plus, here's track mode. He's like, track, I was like, what's track mode? He's like, that's if you want to race it. I was like, get it off track mode. No track mode. But like, as you move it, it literally changes the sound of the car. I'm like, it sounds different. It's like, what is that? It's crazy. So I get in the car, I pull out of the parking lot. And I'm like, it's like 10 and 2, you know? And it's a $215,000 car. Yeah, right. So I'm like, okay, 10 and 2, you know, I'm like somebody pull, I'm like, do not pull up next to me. He like, get away from me. I'm like covering the blood of Jesus, cover us, protect us, bind any demonic forces coming in. He goes, there's a target on my back. You know, I'm like, please, keep, like, don't let anyone touch this car. Please don't let, so I'm driving. I get on 84. I mean, I look down, I'm going 91. I know, I know, I know I truly had no, I'm like, what, break, break, like, I'm trying to figure out how to turn on the radio. There is not a button that says anything remotely resembling a radio. I'm like, I know, I see the speakers, I know it has a radio. There's no, and so I'm by myself, but I'm, you know, talking, I'm like, I don't know how to turn on the radio. I say that, I don't know how to turn on the radio. On the screen pops up, which hand gesture would you like to make turn on the radio? That was hand, the car speaks sign language. Are you kidding me with this? It literally hand pops up on the screen and says, which hand gesture would you like to use to turn on the radio? I'm like, this is crazy town. And so, I get to the church. I come, I, from the dealership to here, I'm about to do run through for this message. And, and I put the top back up, and I turn the car off, and I get out, and I realize there's this little window in the back that I didn't put up. You know, I didn't, I didn't know there was a window back there, but there's a tiny window that you need to put. So, I, I go to, to get back in the car, and it's locked. But I know you think I like the keys, and no, I have the keys. But the, the, the, what's this? That thing? The thing you, you pull to open the car, the door handle? It's sunk in the car. Like, it's not there. Okay? And I'm like, I'm like, what do I need to, you know, as I pull out the key fob, I push every button on the key fob. Unlock, Mercedes signal, panic button, everything. It's not, the car won't unlock. I cannot get in the car. I've got this powerful vehicle. Like I call the dealership, I'm like, "Hey, I don't know how to unlock the car."

Okay, just to give you the spoiler alert to tell you, you have to walk 25 feet away and then come 25 feet back for it to work, evidently. Some theft, you know, deterrent feature, I didn't know that. But I'm just sitting there looking at this car that does all these amazing things and I can't even unlock it. I can't figure out how it works. And the reason I start there is because today we're going to talk about something that is familiar to you, that you think you know how it works, but it does so many more things than you've ever realized and so many of you can't even unlock it. And it's the idea. Here's, it's a churchy word. It's grace. It's grace. And we think, "Oh, grace, I know grace. Grace does that. No, grace does that, that, that, that, that and that." Some of you are here this morning, you're sitting outside of grace looking at it saying, "Hey, I believe it's powerful, but I don't know how to unlock it. I don't know how to get in." Some of you are in grace. You are in grace now and you think, "Oh, it's that thing that saved me. It's the reason I'm forgiven, but it does so much more than just that. It is so powerful." And so Paul in his letter to Titus, it's one of the pastoral epistles, one of three that we had that instructs us on how to do church today. We're moving through this letter, this book, we call it Titus. We're in chapter two, we're wrapping up chapter two this week and we're talking about how does grace work? How does grace work? Because some of you are like, "Oh, I know grace. It forgave me. It's the reason I'm forgiven." Grace covered my sin and I'm telling you, it does so much more than you realize. And I don't want to make little about forgiveness, but I want to make a whole lot from the Scripture today about grace. Okay. Just as a reminder, Paul writes this letter to his protege Titus. Just like Timothy's in Ephesus, he's sending Titus to Crete. Titus is the fixer. Paul's like, "Hey, Titus, come here, man. Hey, so the church in Crete, the Crete's a Greek island, biggest Greek island, 160 miles long. Hey, the church in Crete's broken. I need you to go fix it." He's like, "I got you. I'm going to fix it." He goes, "How do I fix it?" And he writes this letter. This is step by step how you fix the churches on Crete. You go step one, week one, find godly leaders. Find God fearing men and put them over the churches. Raise them up. People who are blameless. People who desire to live godly lives and appoint them as leaders. Week two, call out the heresy. Find the false teaching that is happening among them. These false ideologies that people are tempted to believe and call them what it is. Say, "Hey, that's false teaching. It's going to lead you astray. You don't want to do that to purify the church." And then week three, listen, you've got all kinds of people there on the island of Crete. You need to find people

in the different seasons of life and call them to play their roles. He says, "Find the older men and have them raise up younger men and call them to live a god-honor and god-fearing life and then find the older women and have them live according to what the scripture calls them to and to invest in the younger women and then call the younger women not to just get after gossip and watching the latest love island but to actually live a life of purpose and meaning and then find the younger men and call them away from apathy. Call them away from the spirit of the world to actually live a life that's going to matter a hundred years from now and a hundred thousand years from now to do something with their lives. And then because there's bond servants there, he goes, "Listen, I want you to understand that we are to live such godly lives among the pagans." And I love this in Titus 2, verse 10, that we, that you and I would make the teachings of Christ, our Savior, attractive by your life, that people would look at you the way that you study, the way that you take tests, the way that you work, the way that you parent, the way that you live with an understanding way with your spouse. And they would say, "Who's your teacher? Where did you learn that? What are you guys doing in that place that you go to Sunday mornings? Who are you following?" Because I want to know him. I want to know him. I'm going to be in verse 11. We're going to go through verse 15. As we're talking about how grace works, I'm going to show you from the text how grace saves you, how grace shapes you. And before you leave here today, how grace sets us apart, it makes us all together different than the world that we think we belong to. We'll dive in. We'll go through verse 11 for the grace of God. I'll just read this whole section to you, and then we'll teach it. For the grace of God has appeared that all for salvation to all people, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness

and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These then are the things you should teach, encourage and rebuke with all authority, do not let anyone despise you, Titus, Harris Creek. That verse 11, if you look at verse 11 with me, for the grace of God has appeared that all for salvation to all people, the grace of God, all for salvation, and he's coming off of last week to all kinds of people, older men, older women, younger women, younger men, slave or free, all people, okay? Everyone has the opportunity to respond to the gospel that Christ on the cross has his arm stretched wide, every world religion has a statement of exclusivity. The Hindu faith, Buddhist faith, Jewish faith, Islamic faith, all have statements of exclusivity. So does Christianity, for I'm the way, the truth in life. No one gets to the Father except through me, except through me, but my arms are stretched wide and I'm saying come all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. I am the way that you get to God. I've done the work on your behalf. So salvation is offered to all people.

Grace is not God giving you what you deserve. It's Jesus giving himself to save you from what you deserve. And so my first point is grace saves us. This is the one you probably knew. Grace saves us. Now what is grace? A theological definition would be unmerited favor, that that's would be grace. But we don't use those words very often, unmerited in favor. And so it would be you receiving the favor of God having done nothing to earn it. You've done nothing to deserve the favor of the creator of the heavens, the earth. That God, the creator of the heavens and the earth has granted you, his favor was favor. You're his favorite. You're his favorite. You're his favorite. All right, man, let's talk. Let's talk. If you're watching from online, I'm down here. Let's say something, need you to hear me. Young old, rich poor. Anxious, at peace. God, God loves you. He loves you right now. Not when you get right, not a future version of you. Not when you get cleaned up right now.

God loves you so much. I even say something, maybe even crazier. So you can hear that, let the hard heart soften right now. Okay, let the anxious heart breathe for a minute. God right now loves you so much. And with some of you who need to hear God likes you. He even likes you. He enjoys you. He desires to be affectionate towards you. To give you stuff, to bless you, and to protect you, is crazy about you. You receive that? God loves you. Grace produces in us good works, but it is utterly opposed to you earning. We can not earn grace, the second you try to earn it, it is no longer grace, because grace is unmerited, undeserved, favored from the creator of the heavens and the earth. It would be like, okay, on Christmas, so imagine on Christmas we gather our Hairs Creek staff and we're there at our Christmas party and I go, guys, it's Christmas and I want to give you a gift. They hand them their paychecks and their December paychecks or what their November paychecks were and their October paychecks were and I say, this is a gift and they're going to open those paychecks and say, well, how is this a gift? This is what we earned. I say, well, but you get it this month. You know, it's a gift. You cannot, if you've earned something, it's no longer grace. It's no longer a gift. This is why, what does God want from you? You deep desperation for him. This is why God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, because what some of

you need to hear right in conjunction with God's love's you and he's crazy about you is you are just not that important, you're expendable, you're going to die and the world is going to go on and the church is going to go on, you know, and it's just you've got to come to God and just say, I need you. That's what he needs from you is your need for him. Then that's really all you have to offer him is that you need him and that's why he saves you. He says, it has appeared. What does it mean that it has appeared? Well, Christ came to give us the grace of God. He showed up on this earth. It appeared Christ came here. Every other religion tells you what you must do to reach God and the gospel tells you what God has done to reach you. Every other religion tells you what you must do to reach God. The gospel, Christianity tells you what God did to reach you. The fair is happening right now in Waco, but we went to my hometown where I'm from Quero, a small town this past weekend to see my mom and it's Turkey Fest and the Turkey Fest is our version of the fair. So we go to Turkey Fest and the kids, they get the wristband, they can ride all the rides, so Monica and I get a little date at the fairgrounds. So we go over to the midway where we're playing some games. So I go up to the balloons, throw up dark, pop a balloon and I'm like, what do I got to do to win that bear and then this big stuffed animal, what do I got to do to win that? He's like, well, you give me ten dollars, I give you a dart, you pop a balloon. You win a small prize. Give me ten dollars, ten dollars again, I give you a dart. If you pop a balloon, you can trade your small prize for a big prize. And then you give me, I'm sorry for a medium-sized prize, not a big prize, a medium-sized prize. Then you give me ten dollars, I give you a dart, if you pop a balloon, you can trade

your medium-sized prize for that stuffed bear. Now, if you're following along at home folks and you're doing math, that's thirty dollars. For a bear that I can buy a CVS for $9.99, and I don't know if you realize this, but that's thirty dollars just for a chance to win it. Like you don't pop a balloon at any point, give me ten more dollars till you pop a balloon and then you pop a balloon three times, so it could happen in three times, it could happen after fifty dollars, it could happen after a hundred and seventy dollars, it could happen you could be here till tomorrow and still not have a bear. Like you're working your way up for a chance to win the prize, that's the Hindu faith, that's the Buddhist faith, that's the Jewish faith, that's the Islamic faith. You working your way up for a chance for God's favor, and yet Christianity is God came here and said, "You want my favor?" And what did you do? Like what, it would be that the guy just said, "I go, what do I got to do to get the bear?" And he goes, "Here." But not just here, I cussed at him and I turned his booth upside down. And he goes, he's chasing me down. And you want the bear. You want the bear. That's what you did to God. That's what you did to God. And anybody here is like, no, I didn't. That's why you haven't received grace. Pride, self-righteousness. You cannot receive it if you think you deserve it. You won't. You will die having never received it. If any part of your heart thinks you deserve it, you've got to get low. You've got to get low.

Verse 12, so it saves us. What else does it do? It-- what's it? What's it? Grace. Grace. Grace teaches us to say no. So it teaches us now. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives. In this present age, it says-- so it teaches us in this present age how? While we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So in this present age, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions because or why as we wait for a blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So it doesn't just forgive our sins. It teaches us to fight our sin in this present age how? By giving you a better offering. Sin is just a proposition for you to not trust God. It's a shortcut, a momentary pleasure. You can have something now or something much greater later if you hold out. So it gives you a better offering. You need only to wait and say, in the proposition, in the phone call, the text message, would you like another?

Want to try this? Want to go there? Want to see that? Want to click this? Say no. Wait for something better. That's smart. Oh, wait. My God has better for me. I'll trust God. I'll trust a good father. And there's something grace came. Jesus came. He appeared. And then it says he's going to appear again in glory. So he came in grace, and he'll appear again in glory. So in between grace and glory, you say no in the midst of temptation. It's changing you. The seminary word would be sanctifying you, conforming you to the image and character of Christ. I'm going to use the word shaping you. Number two, grace shapes us. Grace shapes us. I'll bring your attention to this. It says, appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest passages telling you that Jesus Christ is God, because we're says God and Savior.

It's not saying God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In the Greek, those two words are describing the person of Jesus Christ, who is both our God and Savior. Grace shapes us. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. It is your instructor, your trainer, your professor. And I think we think, well, if I preach high grace, like if I preach, well, God forgives all your sins. He forgives all your sins. Past, present, future, then people are just going to go wild. If I parent with grace, then they're just going to go crazy, but it actually says the opposite. That when you have an understanding of grace, what your sin cost is? Someone had to die. And that in him, you receive all of God's riches. You actually say, how do I live my life as a sacrifice to you? Because you're a good God. Like some of us, we're stuck in sin because we just don't believe God is good. I'll give you another definition for grace that I like. It's an acrostic God's riches at Christ's expense. You see that? God's riches at Christ's expense. That today, you receive God's riches. And did it cost you anything? Did you earn it? No, Christ paid for you to receive God's riches. Today and eternally, in this present age and forever in the age to come, you receive the riches of God

because Jesus paid for them. We, you and I believe, fundamentally, in Christianity. Right? It's like, no. If I said, "Hey, tomorrow's gonna be a really hard day." It's gonna be the worst day ever. Tomorrow's gonna be a bad day. So hard. The worst day. But if you can make it through tomorrow, then the rest of the rest is gonna be a great day. Not just great, but like I'm talking, you are gonna have everything you want, pleasures forevermore. You're gonna get to go where you want, see what you want, do whatever you want with whomever. Like you're gonna be with whoever you want to be with. You're gonna laugh until you cry all the time. It's just like the rest of your life is just pure joy, no sadness. But you just got to get through tomorrow. All of us would sign up for that. We would all say, "I'm in. I'll take 24 hours of misery for a lifetime of pleasure." And yet, is that not the Christian life? Like, is that not what we fundamentally believe? Like, if you can just get through the rest of your life and you go, "But wait a minute, the rest of my life is longer than a day." And I go, "It's actually shorter than a day relative to eternity." A day to the rest of your life versus the rest of your life to eternity, the rest of your life is actually shorter than a day relative to eternity. And this is the Christian life. Like, okay, in this, in today and tomorrow and the next day, you're gonna have to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions because you know something better is coming. You know that God has a better offering. And so, you know, this is what it says in Acts 20, verse 32. "Now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Among all those who are changing, God's grace is going to change you." So, how have you received grace and yet not been changed? What is it in your life that you're holding back from grace and you're saying, "No, this I want to keep with me, my control, my self-righteousness, my materialism, my sin struggle, my addiction, no this, you can change all this, but this I want to keep something like no grace can permeate this. I don't want you to get this." But I went to the altar call in the sixth grade. I said the prayer and I asked Jesus into my heart, "You're locked outside. You're looking at the power of grace and I don't know how to get in. I don't know how to access that. What do I do?" I was doing an interview. It's the 250th anniversary of our country and I was asked to give an interview

on TV and to do so, they put you through makeup. They have a lot of work to do here just to make the face not shiny and whatnot. So, I'm sitting on the truck with my son West and he's with me, and we're just in this trailer, not a truck, but a trailer waiting to do this interview. And as we're sitting in this trailer, just he and I in there, in walks Jonathan Rumi. If you don't know who Jonathan Rumi is, he played Jesus on the chosen. There's a picture. He walks in. You can imagine you're sitting there and Jesus walks in. Westin's eyes get this big. He just stares at his shoes, there's jaws on the floor, and then Jonathan sits right next to him and I'm like, "This is going to be interesting." I'm just like, "Hey, man, how are you? Good to meet you." And then they call for him almost immediately. They call for him and he leaves. He has to go back out. And so, Westin goes, "Dad, was that?" And I go, "Yes." And he goes, "John Wick." If you don't know John Wick is, here's a picture. He's an action hero in movies. Westin hasn't seen the movie, but he knows of John Wick, the action hero. And I think some of us want Jesus John Wick. Like, we want John Wick, Jesus. We want Jesus to come in and save the day. Jesus, come save me from my anxiety, come save me from my depression, come save my marriage, come save my child, come save this situation, but we don't want the Jesus that's going to change you. We don't want the Jesus to say, "Hey, let go of that and I'll give you this." The Jesus is like, "Hey, you're not going to be who you are right now." Like, "I love you right now, but when you understand how much I love you right now, you're going to become something altogether different." That Jesus changes you. He shapes you, sanctifies you. He's turning you into himself, calling you to live a holy life. And so grace will shape you, to purify for himself a people that are his very own." Listen, eager to do what is good, so it describes his people. These then are the things you should teach, encourage and rebuke with all authority. Did not let anyone despise you. So Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify us. He gave himself for us to make us his very own, described from the text. How do you know if you're his very own? You hear this morning, you're like, well, how do I know if I'm his? How do I know if I'm his? Eager to do good. Not willing to, not will, not can. I'm eager. I'm excited to. There's

an eagerness in me to do the right thing, to do good. And then he says to Titus, rebuke and live above reproach. He says this, guys, if you're going to be separate from somebody, like there's somebody in your life, you're like, I'm separate from them. It's not because they're mad at you because you stole from them. It's not because they're mad at you because your dog barked at midnight. It's not because they're mad at you because, you know, you said something rude or you cut them off in traffic or you let that word sneak out, you're separate from them because you're pursuing a holiness in a way that they're not. And it's the only thing that makes you separate from them because if there's anything else that has made you separate from them, you're eager to put it back together as long as it is up to you. As long as it is up to you, we have to know like, like this is what it means to let grace set you apart. Number three, grace sets us apart. It sets us apart out of this. We called you out of this world. If your goal is to be worldly, your goal is not to be godly. Your other worldly. You're different. You're moving through this world and you're saying, how much good can I do? Listen, to follow Christ, you're not just a do-gooder. Sometimes that's like the, you know, the Baptist parody. It's like, oh, you're a do-gooder. You're not just a do-gooder, but listen, church, you are a do-gooder. You're not just a do-gooder, but you're a do-bester. What do I mean by that? You're the best person they know. You're the first phone call. Like, there's need. Someone needs a place to stay. You're like, I got an empty bedroom. Somebody needs a place to eat. You're like, I got extra food. You know? You're like, hey, they're in the ring. You're like, come inside. You need a car. You take mine. You need your car clean. I'll wash it. You need your grass mode. I'll mow it. Like, you're the do-bester. Like, everybody around you like that person? Like, who is it that they follow? Because when I'm around them, they just speak words of life, words of encouragement. They're always eager to help. It's like they take the things that they have and they just share it with everyone. They just want to help everybody. And it's like they don't ever get worn out because it's almost like they're tapped into something, some ever-flowing river of life. Like, they know something we don't know. They're getting their power and their energy and being spurred on by some other force, some other worldly force. Yeah, that's Christianity, man. That's when you know God. You're tapping at somebody. You've been to church your whole life. You're

like, I never tapped into that. I don't know how to unlock it. We can show you how. We can show you how. It's amazing. You unlock that. It changes everything. Just lose your life for his sake. It changes everything. I'll tell you about it. I haven't known how to share this story, honestly. And it's kind of embarrassing for a number of reasons. But in July, I went on tour with some friends. And so I was waking up every day in a new city and I was living. I was sharing like 100, 200 square feet with three other guys who would wake up in the morning and we'd get in God's Word. We'd encourage each other with God's Word. And, you know, they, like, eat clean, you know, which is new for me. And so, like, we're eating grass-fed, grass-finished, you know, whole foods every day, working out every day, also new for me. And then we would go into the city wherever we were and we'd just share the gospel and be on mission. And then that night I would share the gospel and we'd see thousands and thousands of people give their lives to Jesus, just like sitting right in the middle of a revival. And my friend, you know, Forrest, if you know who that is, like, like sarcasm is my love language. And if I'm, you know, if I give you a hard time, I love you. And with him, you know, you say something sarcastic and he'd just kind of look at you and just be like, okay, and like go on and you're like, oh, conviction. And I think the embarrassing part is like, I'm learning from this record, I'm a pastor, right? And I'm learning holiness from this recording artist. And I just like went up the mountain, guys. And it was like I saw the face of God and I don't wanna come down. And it like changed me. I mean, it truly like I came off that tour and I was like, I just don't wanna come back down. And it gave me a taste of what every single day can be like when you just live your life like a mission trip.

You're like, man, I'm just, I'm gonna wake up in the morning and but before the sun sets everywhere I go, I'm gonna at least talk to someone in every space I occupy about Jesus and I'm gonna steward this body in a way that God has intended and I'm thinking clearly. I'm gonna start in his word, not out of obligation 'cause I wanna be near him and know him. And it's just a whole different high. You know, from a former drug user, let me just say it's a whole different, better kind of high. And it's available to you right now that he sets us apart because grace, it doesn't just save us, it also shapes us. And it doesn't just save us and shape us, it takes us and it sets us apart from the world. So I'll wrap up by sharing this story with you that I heard this week from my friend and fellow pastor Josh and I called him, I was like, man, tell me more about that. And he was leading a youth group and there was a young man in the youth group who was just different, honestly was just a little off. And he would keep it away from everybody else. It's kind of a heavy story, I'll share that with you but hang in there with me. He was just kind of like separate from everybody. If you got near him, he kind of flenched, like there was clearly something going on and the Christians there would try to love him and care for him. And when it came to, they set out the pizza every night,

like here's the pizza, he would cut in front of the line and just grab as much as he could. Two handfuls and he'd stuff it in his bag and he would just get as much pizza as he could. And they told him, hey, you can't do that. And some people, there were some kids there that had really loved and cared for him. They were really patient and long suffering with this young man that if you just got near him, he would cower down, he couldn't look you in the eyes. And when he started to really take affection to you and he liked you, he would do something really weird. He'd grab your hand and he'd lick you. And they were like, hey, you can't do that. And he was kind of like, I don't understand. What's the problem? And so they start doing their homework and their research on this young man. And they find out that he's in a foster home. And his foster parents had done this so they could receive a check from the government while secretly both working outside the home. So what they would do and they would go to work is they would put him in the dog crate and they'd keep him in the dog crate. And so when they would go to feed him, he'd have to get the food faster than his roommates. And he was really raised by canines. And so you kind of understand why when he took affection to you, he would lick you.

That's what he learned. It was the way of life he had learned. Well, when the church found out they shine a light on this and this couple, it loses custody and Pastor Joshua say the senior saints there stepped up. These are people who are empty nesters but not given up to retirement. And they're saying, hey, they're not just collecting seashells. They're like, no, we're still in the game. We're still alive, we're still getting after it. And so this couple goes to adopt him and they stand before a judge. You see, we want him and that gavel comes down and he is now theirs, saved. What did he do to get saved? What did he do to get saved? Stole pizza? What did he do to get saved? Now he's theirs, that's his reality. But he still hoards food. He's still socially awkward, he still licks people. Pointing him a new direction, and he's changing And that young man grew up with a new family and became someone altogether different Not overnight, but some of those oddities those idiosyncrasies fell off of him as he lived amongst God's people Now who are you in this story? Well, you are the boy in the crate And if you are here right now, and you're no longer the boy in the crate Then you've become the couple ready and willing to do whatever it takes to do the good around you there is to do There's no in between You are one of the two you the boy in the crate or the couple ready to surrender

Everything to care for those around you in the name of Jesus Because of grace That's grace Okay Let me pray we get it Father help us Understand that amazing grace that we would have the audacity to call it amazing grace How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me and shaped a wretch like me has said a wretch like be a part in This world because of your goodness Because of your grace Can form our hearts to the character and the likeness of Jesus Make us new Make us Thank you for paying the ultimate price Thank you for what you've done on our behalf What we could not do for ourselves We love you Lord in Jesus name Amen