Learning To Enjoy Grace by Dr. Pete Norris

Today on Power In The Word Every time we look in the mirror, we're looking for flaws. Because that's the mindset that we have in life, is that we look at our flaws. We look at our shortcomings. We look at our struggles. We look at our problems, instead of looking at what Jesus has done for us. He made us absolutely whole, without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. He made you absolutely holy and blameless, without one single fault. That's the power of His marvelous grace. That's what Jesus did. Not just for the church. He did it for everybody. For the whole world. They just haven't understood it yet. Welcome to Power In The Word. Does the grace of God only provide our salvation? Or is there more to living when grace is applied to all aspects of our life? So today, Dr. Norris explains why grace applies to everything we do and say. And he shows us how grace will guide your behavior and give you peace. It's a powerful message, so you stay with us and be encouraged. How many of you know that grace is God's provision for me and you? In other words, you've got to understand this. It took me a long time to understand this. God can only deal with us through His grace. If God wanted to think bad of us or wanted to treat us bad, He couldn't. Because He's made a law called grace. Now that doesn't mean just doing anything you want to do. That doesn't mean acting any way you want to act. But I do want you to understand today, it's not about your actions. It's about your identity. The enemy is not after your behavior. He's after your identity. So go to Colossians chapter 1 verse 21 in the New Living Translation.

This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemy, separated from Him by evil actions and by evil thoughts. Look at 22. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence and you are holy, you are blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. How many of you know you have not one single fault? Guys, you've got to get a hold of this revelation because you're never going to enjoy the grace of God until you understand that the grace of God is more than just He died for your sins. The grace of God is He loves you so much He's going to judge you not only for what you do right or wrong but He's going to look after you and watch over you by His marvelous grace. He's going to supply for you through His grace. How many of you know who grace is? Jesus, right? So you stand before Him today with not one single fault. Turn to somebody and say, I don't have any faults. Tell your wife and husband, I don't have any faults. That will help some of you. Because you don't have any faults. God doesn't see any of your faults because your life has been hidden with Christ in God, Colossians 3 and 3. So you and I, His life is in Christ. We are brought into His presence and you're holy, you're blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. Now think about that just a moment. How many times do you think about you look in the mirror, what do you look for? For a flaw. You don't look for what's right.

Every time we look in the mirror, we're looking for flaws. Because that's the mindset that we have in life is that we look at our flaws, we look at our shortcomings, we look at our struggles, we look at our problems instead of looking at what Jesus has done for us. He made us absolutely whole without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish. He made you absolutely holy and blameless without one single fault. That's the power of His marvelous grace. That's what Jesus did. Not just for the church, He did it for everybody. For the whole world. They just haven't understood it yet. They haven't been captivated yet. They haven't been told yet. Because we go to church and we hear about how terrible we are and we better get it right or we're going to the devil's hell. But the reality is, He wants to just give you life. John 10 and 10 said a thief come to steal, kill and destroy. But I come that you might have life and life more abundantly. So He didn't come to destroy you guys. He come to redeem you. He come to love you. He come to bless you. He come to make you whole. He come to heal you. He come to deliver you. That's the Messiah. We got to understand how good He is. Let's go to Romans 5 and 2. We're going to get this one in the NLT also.

New Living Translation. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into the place of undeserved privilege where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. Now the word privilege here means a special right, an advantage, an immunity granted or available to a particular group or a person. In other words, He's brought us into that place of undeserved privilege where we stand absolutely spotless, without a wrinkle, without a blemish. We're absolutely perfect in His sight. And you say, well Pastor, I've been around you. I know you're not. We don't go by what we see, we go by faith. And we all walk by that place in our lives and understand. You see, the reality with people in their life is most people have a self-esteem issue. Most of us grew up with that. So having that self-esteem issue, it's very hard for us to think real good about ourselves. And I'm not talking about being arrogant or anything like that. I'm talking about realizing what Jesus has really done for the body of Christ. Because we hear so much negativity, so much doubt. Look at what's being told on TV right now. You need to turn that thing off. If you can ever discover what Jesus has done. Listen, Jesus has done more than just kept you out of hell. And just trying to give you heaven. He's trying to give you heaven on earth. He wants you to walk in peace. He wants you to walk in joy. He don't want you to be so consumed with the world that you're stressed out all the time. He wants you to walk in absolute peace. He's given you that place. He's brought us into a place of undeserved privileges. Where we just stand and see the goodness of the Lord. Amen?

Let's go to Romans 5 and 2 in the Amplified Classic. I want you to see this. Through Him also we have our access, our interest, our introduction by faith into this grace. The state of God's favor in which we firmly and safely stand. And let us rejoice and exert in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God. How many of you know that He's brought you into the entrance, into the faith, into that grace. The state of God's favor. How many of you know that God's favor is always around you? How many of you know that He's brought you into that magnificent favor to where you can enjoy the goodness of the Lord? God ain't sitting here with a whip all the time, judging you for everything you've done wrong. He's there to build you up, to encourage you, to exalt you, to lift you up to where you can understand. Now He doesn't want you going around doing crazy stuff, but we're past that anyway. We're not going to go out and do those kind of things. But we've got to enjoy that God's marvelous grace that He's given us. He's given it to us to enjoy. Now watch this. Rejoice and enjoy what you have been privileged to have access to. But the church never has access to it because they don't know they're there. See, 99% of the people in the church are just waiting to get to heaven. If I can just get to heaven. If I can just get to heaven. We're crying and fussing and complaining over things that don't even matter. Think about it a minute. It doesn't even matter. If we can just discover who we are and what Christ has really done for us, we're absolutely whole, absolutely perfect. Not in our actions, but in our spirit. We're a spirit. We possess a soul and we live in a body. Our spirit is absolutely perfect. Our soul is being renewed, mind, will, and emotion is being renewed by the Word of God. Romans 12 and 2. Be ye not conformed to this world, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. And then our body is going to act the way that our soul and our spirit believe.

You're never going to get past what you believe. Proverbs 23, 7. Whatsoever man believeth in his heart, that's exactly what he is. That word in the actual Hebrew is the word mind. What you think in your mind is what you're going to be. You're never going to rise above your mind. And until you understand that. See, the enemy is not out here attacking and trying to get your behavior. He's trying to get your identity. The enemy is not trying to test you in your behavior, because your behavior has nothing to do with anything. He's trying to keep you from identifying with who you are. And so we look in the mirror, we don't get up every morning and tell ourselves who we are. We act, we base our life on how we behave and how we act and how we think. What did Jesus really do? See, that's the purpose of this book. It's to let you realize what He's done for you. Not so you can walk around and be holier than everybody. That ain't even the purpose. The purpose is discovering what He's done for you. You know, if I'd walk up to Larry here and I'd call him Bob, he wouldn't answer. The devil tells you you're worthless, you're scumbag, you're absolutely worth nothing. And you believe it. Because we've been told so long that we're worthless. I want you to go to 1 Corinthians 10 and 15 in the New Living Translation. But whatever, now this is Paul talking to the Corinthian church. He said, but whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. But I am what I am because God's poured out His wonderful favor on my life. And His marvelous grace.

And not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles. Yet not I but God who is working through me by His what? His grace. He said, I am what I am by the grace of God. And Paul is saying that Jesus is working through him by His marvelous grace. See guys, do you understand that grace is more than just removing your sins? It's keeping you whole. Keeping you delivered. Keeping you free. Giving you peace in the world. That's the marvelous grace that He's given us. It isn't about right or wrong. It's about understanding who I am in Christ Jesus. Because Jesus died for everybody. Not just for church people. Go to Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 in the Amplified Classic. Did you see this? Not in your own strength for it is God who is all the while effectively at work in you, energizing and creating in you the power and desire both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction in life. How many of you know it's not about your own strength? See the sooner you realize that it isn't about you, that it's about understanding what His plan is for your life. See most people go through their life and here's what the prayer request of God is. I want you to pray that I'll find God's will. Paul never struggled finding God's will. Now Paul's struggle did take him through some stuff because Paul thought he was right when he was destroying the church. He thought he was right when he was coming at it.

As a matter of fact, he gave the okay to stone Stephen. And then he turns and stands before the Corinthian church and he said, I've never wronged anybody. Why? Because he understood the marvelous transformation of the recreation that took place in his life. That's what happens with me and you. We don't have a past. Our past is gone. Stop living in it. Most people are still in Egypt even though God's brought them out of Egypt. They don't understand the freedom of His marvelous grace that He'll do the things to you. God never puts anything in your heart He don't give you the desire to do. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but I'm telling you, He'll put people in your path. He'll give you direction. He'll give you avenues. People will show up exactly when they need to show up in your life. When you think, God, I can't do it anymore. That's when God will show up. Why? Because your heart is bigger than what you're able to accomplish. That's exactly why He's doing what He's doing. He said, it's not in my own strength, it's God who is all the while effectively at work in me, energizing and creating you with the power and desire both to will and to work. Guys, think about it. Do you trust Him with everything or is there still some things you've got to hold on that you don't need God for yet? He wants to operate in every area of your life. When we can understand that, we can lay some of the stress down, we can lay some of the burdens down. Nobody knows how to build a church.

Nobody knows everything. I don't have all the answers, but I know somebody that does. Here's where I've come to the conclusion, I've just got to trust Him. I can't do it, but I promise you, He'll not let you down if you'll trust Him. He wants to do something fantastic in your life, but you've got to trust Him. People all the time ask me, what's God's will for my life? Sometimes God will share some things, but here's what I've discovered. God's been preparing you for something your whole entire life. Most people never find it because they're afraid of it. I guarantee you, behind your biggest fear is your calling in your life. What you're afraid of is probably hiding you from what you've called to do. And I know everybody's not called to start a church, everybody's not called to start a business, but what do you love? What do you want to change? What are you here for? Would anybody miss you if you were gone? Think about it a minute. Would anybody miss you if you were gone? Go to Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7 in the Amplified Classic. Now think about it. Are we learning to enjoy His grace? Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's free grace, undeserved favor, which was bestowed upon me by the exercise, the working of all of His effectiveness, of His power. Now look at verse 8. To me, though, I'm the very least of all the saints, God's consecrated people. This grace, this favor, this privilege was granted and graciously entrusted to proclaim the Gentiles the unending, boundless, phantomless, incalculable, and exhaustless riches of Christ's wealth, which no human being could have searched out. He said, I'm the least of all the saints, but I've been called to tell them how wonderful

the riches of Christ's wealth, which no human being could have searched out. God has sent me here, I believe this with all my heart, I believe I was created before the foundation of the world to come here to tell people how wonderful God is. And I believe that's not everybody's calling in their life. That's why I don't ever talk about other pastors and stuff. I don't know what God spoke to their heart. That's their business. Here's what I'm called to do. I'm called to teach people who they are in Christ Jesus, and for them to walk in victory, walk above circumstances, walk above situations, because I'm telling you, every crisis you go through in your life will show you another avenue of God that you didn't know before. So God's not sitting around making us sick and bringing destruction in our lives, but I guarantee you sometimes when things come, he'll use them for his glory. And when we don't understand it, we need to understand that day after day after day, our dependency needs to be on God and not our own strength. Because I promise you, in times like these, he's all we got. People are tore up about the wrong stuff. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 5. That experience is worth boasting about, but I'm not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses, Paul's saying. Verse 6. If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. Paul said, I've done some pretty amazing things. If I want to talk about how wonderful they are, I wouldn't be boasting. That would be the truth. But I won't do it, because I don't want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message. In other words, what Paul's saying is, I don't want anybody to boast about me above what they see in my life and hear in my message. In other words, Paul was saying, my message is bringing forth all this stuff that I'm talking about. Is your message? Let's look at verse 7. Even though I have received such wonderful revelation from God, so to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and to keep me from becoming proud. Now this was not a sickness in Paul's life. This was ministering spirits come to minister against him, and to come against opposing spirits trying to stop him, because a messenger is the actual Greek word for personality.

In other words, it was actually a person that was coming to try to stop Paul from preaching this message. Now can you imagine, Paul, one time he's trying to kill the Christians, and the next month, not the next month, 14 years later he's coming back telling them how wonderful this Jesus is that he was talking about trying to kill before. Now that would probably be a tough ministry to go back into a place that you've preached one message before, and then you come along and you've got a totally different message, and now you're preaching about the love of Christ when you're killing folks before. That must have been pretty opposition for Paul, right? But look at verse 8. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Verse 9. Each time he said, my grace is all you need, Paul. Now listen to me, right? I don't know who this is for, but this is for somebody. Whatever it is you're going through in your life, his grace is sufficient. You can trust him. You can trust him with what's going on in your life. You can trust him that good things are going to come to those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose. And here's what I want you to understand today. Look what he said. Each time he said, my grace is all you need, my power works best when you're weak. Now I don't think the body of Christ understands that. Does that mean throwing up your hands and doing nothing? No. That means doing exactly what he tells you, but trust him that everything's going to be okay. What I'm trying to get you to understand is when things come your way, he's the only hope you've got. He's the only strength you've got. When you no longer... See, here's what happens to the body of Christ. When we can no longer do anything, then we give it to God. When everybody says, you know what? I'm done with you. I can't do anything. That's when we start trusting the Lord. But we've exhausted all of our avenues before we do it, and there's nothing wrong with that. I understand that. But at the same time, I know from prime example that in a situation that's unbearable, God will give you peace. And if you've ever experienced that peace, that peace will sustain you for the rest of your life. And you'll know that you know there's another side of God that you know all about that you didn't know about before. Now I did not want to go through that heart attack deal, but I'm telling you right now, it's the best thing ever happened to me. Because I know and I have compassion when people are dealing with stuff in their lives now. When you've never been sick, it's easy to stand up and say, oh, just believe God to be healed. But when you're going through something in your

own life, and you're caught off guard, and immediately you're going through it, and one moment they say this, and the next moment they say, you've got to do this or you're not going to do this. All those things come flashing at your head. He's all you've got. And when you can't do it, that's the greatest time of your life. When you no longer have the ability to fix it, that is the greatest. That's what Paul was saying. I don't even try to fix it anymore. I just trust Him. I'm glad to boast about the weakness so that the power of Christ can work through me. See, as long as you're involved, He can't do anything. And we get involved real easy because we've been taught as men, you can handle it. You've got all the answers. I've got news for you. You don't. You don't even know what you're doing. Right? The sooner you come to this, we don't know how to be husbands. We don't know how to do what we need to do. We just do the best we can. us to revelation and help us through it, then it's a terrible situation, right? How many of you can say amen to that? Look at verse ten. So Paul said, I don't boast about my strengths, I boast in my weakness. That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses. How many of you take pleasure in your weakness? When you don't know what you're doing, you take pleasure in that. And in the insults, in the hardships, in the persecutions, in the troubles, I suffer for Christ. For when I'm weak, then I know I'm strong. Well, let's go there a minute. You can't do anything about what people say about you. I had somebody call me this way, and God really helped me with this years back, because I do catch a little heat. But God helped me years back with that. He said, if it's not true, why does it bother you? So when people talk about you, why does it bother you if it ain't true? Because you're not sure and you want people's affirmation.

If you need people's affirmation, it's because you don't think you're true. It ain't even about being right. It's about understanding that as you go through things in your life, Paul said, even in the insults, the hardships, the persecutions, the troubles that I suffer for Christ, when I'm weak, that's when I'm really the strongest. What Paul's saying is, when I don't know what to do, that's when I can trust Him. Do you trust Him with every part of your life that you're dealing with, every struggle that's going on in your life? You know, how to raise your children, how to be married, how to live your life, what to do in the later life. There's got to be somewhere along the way that you get a confidence that God's going to deliver you from this thing that you're going through. And I don't mean to be negative right now, but I'm going to go there in just a minute. And I'm not negative when I fix and say this, but it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. You're going to deal with some stuff in your life, and you're going to have to trust Him along with it. And I promise you, He won't let you down. He'll deliver you. You've been given everything you need for every trial that's going to come into your life. When you're going through situations in your life, and I believe people need to hear this today, how do I learn to enjoy the grace that He's given me? And you say, well, Pastor, how do I learn to enjoy a situation I'm going through? I didn't say you had to enjoy the situation. You need to enjoy the revelation

and the encounter. Because whether we like it or whether we don't, situations a lot of times bring us closer to God, we think, even though you can't get no closer than He made you. But a crisis sometimes makes us spiritual. Don't they? Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 6 in the Message Bible. If I had a mind to brag a little, I'd probably do it without looking ridiculous. And I'd still be speaking plain truth all the way, but I'll spare you. I don't want anyone to imagine me as anything other than the fool you'd encounter if you saw me on the street or you heard me talk. Look at verse 7. Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a little big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angels did his best to get me down. What he, in fact, did was push me to my knees. No danger of walking around high and mighty. Look at verse 8. At first I didn't think of it as a gift. I begged God to remove it. Three times I did that. Now I'm going to ask you something. How many of you see your limitations as a gift? Ninety percent of us do everything we can do before we talk to God about it. If I can't figure it out, if I can't get it reasoned out in my mind, then I'll talk with God after I've exhausted everything that I can possibly do

to fix it. Look at verse 9. And then he told me, my grace is enough, brother. It's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Think about it a minute. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. How many times have you been going through things in your life and you just couldn't figure them out? And somebody or you read something or something come along and a light bulb went off on the inside. Where in the world did that come from? That was there the whole time. But it's amazing. Paul three times prayed for this to leave. I want this to go. I want this to go. I want this to go. But it didn't go. And God said my grace is sufficient. Some of you in this building today are going through things in your life and you don't understand why. You've done all the right things. You've been the good husband. You've been good to a good wife. You've paid your tithes. You've done all those wonderful things that everybody says doing. Why am I dealing with this time? He wants to show grace every day in your life. Not just for your sins, but for the things you can't handle. For the struggles that you can't walk through. The circumstances you can't overcome. He wants to be that strength to carry you through. He wants to speak those little words of wisdom to you.

Let you know that everything's going to be alright. I got this. Because good things come to those who love the Lord, who are called according to His purpose. And listen, the less you and I have to be involved, the more will start happening in our lives. More blessings will start in our lives. More favors start in our lives. But we have got to keep our vessel clean. What do you mean by that? In other words, stop trying to do everything and let Him do it. I'm not talking about sit down in a chair and never do nothing anymore. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is trust Him with every area of your life. Spend time with Him. Know His heart. Know what moves Him. Know what stirs Him. Know what changes Him. I think God has a way of doing things in our life that sometimes we go down some dark roads before He lifts us out of those dark roads. When we realize that there's nothing we can do to fix it. And I think that God's had His grace on us even when we were going through those dark roads. But God's grace just keeps on calling your name. If you're in here today and maybe you know the Lord and maybe you've accepted Him as your personal Savior and He's living in your life and most of you have, I understand that. But maybe you're going through a situation in your life. His grace is for that answer also. So when you go through life and you go through struggles and you go through hardships, and sometimes God don't answer your prayers like you want Him to answer them, does He? But at the same time, God's faithful. And even when you're faithless, He's still faithful. And you've got to remember that. So when life looks like it's dealt you a bad hand, He's just given you a hand that you've got to trust God with. Right? So today, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions.

Number one, do I trust Him? And number two, do I know enough about His grace to give it to Him? Thank you for joining us today at Power in the Word. All of us here at Harvest Fellowship Church want you to know that God is not mad with you, but He loves you so very much. And He has a plan for your life. Please feel free to contact us here at Harvest Fellowship Church at our website, harvestfellowshipchurch.net. So until next week, please remember, there's power in the Word.