The Gospel of Grace [LIVE] - 05/31/2026

It's so good to see y'all today. Happy Sunday. You all look amazing. Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servant's grace by the confession of true faith to acknowledge the glory of the eternal trinity and in the power of your divine majesty to worship in unity. Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship. And bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, oh Father, who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign one God forever and ever. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the creator, the God who breathed life into his creation and loved us enough to send his son. Jesus, we thank you that you gave us yourself at the cross and brought us new life and the gift of grace. Holy Spirit, thank you for your presence and the power of God that dwells within us. Unify us as we worship today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Come on y'all, did y'all come to worship King Jesus? Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Come on, y'all. Come on, Christ!

Breathe in, but not a lie Over failures I tried to hide It wasn't my turn Till I met you You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name You called my name And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day Now your mercy has saved my soul Now your freedom is all that I know Sing it out! The old made new Jesus, when I met you When you called, when you called my name Sing it! And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name You called my name Come on! And I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day Come on, clap your hands!

Come on, church! This is our testimony We got to worship God this morning Come on, sing it out loud Here we go I needed rescue My sin was heavy The chains break At the weight of your glory I needed shelter I was an orphan But you called me a citizen Sing! When I was broken You were my healing And your love is the air that I breathe Out of the future My eyes are open And when you called my name I ran out of that grave Out of the darkness Into your glorious day You called my name Come on, enjoy your worship this morning. Come on, give God a shout of praise this morning. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Father, you're so good, you're so merciful, and we're so grateful that you've never left us and you never will. Thank you, Lord. There was no way until you made one.

Grace upon grace, hallelujah. Come on. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. I hear you. Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it. Come on, I want you to sing it real loud. Who am I that you keep me? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life, you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Holy, holy, there's only one. I give you glory for all that you've done. Even though I don't deserve it, you did it. Even though I couldn't earn it, you give it. Who am I that you keep me? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. All my life, you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Say, who am I? Who am I that you keep me on your mind? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Say, all my life, you've never left us. You've never forsaken us. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you.

Come on, with hands lifted all over the room, it's a sign of surrender. We're going to say, God, we're just grateful for you. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. And I, I'm lifting both of my hands, because you gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I have, because you gave me chance after chance after chance. Your turn. I, I'm lifting both of my hands, because you gave me chance after chance after chance. And I, I'm giving all that I have, because you gave me chance after chance after chance. Who am I that you keep me on your mind? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. And all my life, you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Say, who am I? Who am I that you keep me on your mind? God, I'm just grateful for you. God, I'm just grateful for you. Say, all my life. All my life, you've been right here by my side. God, I'm just grateful for you. Come on, this is our testimony. God, I'm just grateful for you.

I'll survive, and I'm here to test it God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you If I'm alright, if they say I'm out of my mind God, I'm just grateful for you God, I'm just grateful for you Amen! Amen! Man, I'm so grateful for you Lord I was so happy when they said unto me, come into the house of the Lord, Amen Good morning, my name is Dan, I get the honor and pleasure of being one of the pastors here on staff at Graceway And boy, it is good to see your face this morning If we haven't had a chance to meet, myself and a few other leaders will be in Guest Central after the service Please come by and say hi, let us shake your hand Let us know what you're up to, what we can be praying for you about And if you are new here, there's a QR code on the screen Also, there's a connect card and a seat back in front of you Somewhere in your row, forgive us for our seats y'all Come on, this is progress But yeah, fill out that connect card, we'd like to get to know a little bit more about you And also let you get to know a little bit more about who Graceway is, what we're doing around here One of those things you'll see in the lobby, there's a small group fair this weekend If you're not connected and you're looking for that community, stop by one of those tables Talk to them about what they've got going on, sign up There's activities, there's all kinds of groups there for you Another table that you'll see in the lobby is for Serve Day That is happening this coming Saturday at 8am Man, yeah, what a great opportunity it is for us to go outside of these four walls Into the community, be the hands and feet of Jesus And serve those around us There are quite a few opportunities that still need to be filled We've got about over 300 people registered, but we need about 100 more Right next door, Temple Heights, we're going to serve them Joy Meadows, just a couple of the places that are in pretty good need of your help

So see Alex Carruth, our Community Outreach Director in the lobby Tell her you want to get signed up for that And man, what a blessing it is to go bless some people, isn't it? I'm going to invite our ushers down, we're going to collect today's tithes and offering This is one of those moments where it is a continued act of worship That is just so good to give, it really is There's a couple of ways to do that on screen But I just want to encourage you, all of the things that you see around us Even the Serve Day, being able to do that for our community Is part of what you're giving goes to the community center across the street It is such an impactful way to get involved But even more than that, a huge, huge sign of obedience to the Lord Let's go to pray Lord, we thank you, we thank you for today I thank you for Graceway I thank you that what you're doing in and through Graceway In our community, and through our tithes and offerings Lord, let whatever we give be turned around To bring the future kingdom into the present We love you Lord, we trust that you're going to do some mighty fine things In this community and across the nation We love you, we trust you In Jesus' name, Amen In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit Amen In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit Amen ♪ Quiero estar contigo, quiero estar contigo, quiero estar ♪ ♪ Yes, the world bowed down and said, You are God ♪ ♪ Every man bowed down and said, You are king ♪

♪ So let's start right now, come on, why could we wait? ♪ ♪ We can praise You now in victory ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place just once more ♪ ♪ We just wanna be with You, we just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ Cantaré aleluya mientras vuelves rey, lanzaré en tu presencia mientras vuelves rey ♪ ♪ Lanzaré en tu presencia mientras vuelves rey, cantaré aleluya mientras vuelves rey ♪ ♪ Lanzaré en tu presencia mientras vuelves rey ♪ Come on, we will sing. ♪ So we'll sing aleluya till You come again ♪ ♪ And we'll dance in Your presence till You come again, we will sing ♪ ♪ We will sing aleluya till You come again ♪ ♪ And we'll dance in Your presence, dance in Your presence, dance in Your presence ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ Baby, gloria, ven aquí, contigo quiero estar, contigo quiero estar ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ ♪ King of glory, fill this place, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You, just wanna be with You ♪ Let's pray together, fam. God, this morning we set aside everything, the noise. We set aside the week that was and the weeks that's to come. The stuff that we've done, the stuff that we have to do just so that we can stand in Your presence this morning and worship You, Lord. Just to declare, God, that You are holy, just to declare, Lord, that You are our Savior, our Shepherd. So, God, we don't wanna miss this moment. We don't wanna miss the opportunity just to worship You, just to declare who You are, God. Whether we've come in on a mountaintop, walked in in a valley. Thank You, God, for meeting us in both places. God, until the day that we can see You face to face, we wanna keep doing this, God.

We wanna keep declaring Your holiness, Your power, Your victory, God. We wanna keep declaring who You are. We wanna keep declaring, God, that we worship You. that we need you. And so God, today, set me aside. Holy Spirit, speak to hearts. Convict us where we need to be convicted. Encourage us, God, where we need to be encouraged. Remind us, Lord, of who we are in Christ as we worship you this morning. We bring you the honor and the glory. It's in the name of Jesus we pray and all God's people said. Amen and amen. You glad to be in church today, y'all? It's good to see ya. Why don't you take a second and pass some peace. Peace. All right, well, again, welcome to church. Wanna welcome you, those of you that are joining us online today. And church, will you give it up for our brothers at Graceway Crossroads and Ozark Correctional. Man, it's good to worship with you guys this Sunday. And again, just as a reminder, we are super grateful that we get to work on this building. It's got to be fun to walk in each week and go, I didn't know you could put a hole in that, but we did, we put a hole in it.

And y'all, just be reminded that it's a huge blessing to be able to do this. Thank you for your faithfulness in giving. That's one of the reasons why we can do this. But it's always just a great reminder that this is a building and we are the church. And so we can have a little bit of a stiff posterity, as you would say, for a few weeks as we get things put back in order. So thanks for your patience in that. I'm gonna take a moment. We're gonna invite our Uganda team to come to the stage. As they do, will you help me welcome them, church? We need some more young men like this. I love this, come on. All right, all right. Our Uganda team is going to be leaving June the 5th. They'll be gone June 5th through the 16th. So I just wanna tell you a little bit about what they're doing, and then we're gonna be praying over them as a church. So they're gonna be joining our partner on the ground there in Uganda, Dr. Brian. In Uganda for this trip, they're gonna be partnering there with the RUN Foundation to serve communities through ministry, through education, and healthcare outreach. So we're gonna be helping trained students and leaders in medical skills, discipleship, and the vocational trades. And they're also gonna be encouraging

and equipping future community leaders. Our team's going to minister to students and teachers in the local schools, and then go into surrounding communities to conduct outreach, to pray with families, and participate in some of the RUN medical clinics to care for those in need. Now it would be easy for us to look at the news and to go, this is a little bit scary. I've seen the news. We're sending them to scary places. But look, we believe that God has good plans and great purposes for this team while they go, right? And God's mission is always greater than those things. And so as we begin to look at that, and look, we're not doing this in a vacuum. We're with our eyes closed. We understand those things, but we do this because there are people in Uganda who need to hear the gospel. And there are people in Uganda who need to hear that Jesus saves. And so that is what we're going to be doing as we send this team. I'm gonna have you stand. I'm gonna have you raise a hand towards our team as we pray over and commission them. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we wanna thank you for this opportunity that we have to send this incredible team, God,

to Uganda, to send them across the other side of the globe to do the work of the ministry. And so Lord, we're praying over each and every one of them. God, we pray, of course, for traveling mercies. We pray, of course, for their health and their safety and their wellbeing. And God, we pray, of course, that what you would do while they were there is that you would transform lives. God, I understand what it is to stand on another place on this planet. So Lord, I pray that not only for this team, as I know you will shape their hearts and their minds, God, but that they would be the face of Jesus to people that they interact with. So Lord, we pray over each and every one of the things they're doing, God, from engaging with the community, praying with families, working with RUN, working with Dr. Brian, working in medical and in schools, Lord, that each and every one of those opportunities would be a point at which we could point people to Jesus. God, right now in your name, we rebuke the plans and the purposes of the enemy. And God, we take authority over him and we say that all of his plans have been canceled. And so Lord, anything that he's got planned, Lord, remove it right now in your name, God. That this team would operate in freedom, that this team would operate

in the gifts that you have given them. And Lord, you would use them in a mighty and powerful way to see your future kingdom brought right into the present. We ask you all these things in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen. Y'all give it up for our team going to Uganda. And so church, I want you to do this for me. It gets easy in an environment like this to pray over them and go, oh yeah, sometime after June 16th, we're like, oh, that's right. We had a team that was in Uganda. So can I just encourage you, grab your phone, make a note. And in the next 10 to 15 days that you're just gonna one morning get up and as part of your morning prayers, you're gonna pray for our team and the work that's going on. If you'll commit to that, will you say amen? All right, y'all committed. I heard it. All right, well, I'm gonna have you turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 15. And as you do that, I wanna start with just a story. And our story begins with a young boy about the age of seven. And we meet this young boy and at age seven, his mother passes away. And so life is not going great for him. And then what he decides to do is at least try to continue to pursue kind of a formal education as one would at the age of seven. But it would seem that education really wasn't for him.

His dad gets remarried. And so at age 11, this young boy decides he is going to do the same thing that his father does. And his father happens to be a sea captain. Now, unfortunately, his father's job is ferrying slaves from West Africa to England and the new world as it would be said. Now at age 11, he becomes a sailor and he lives the life of a sailor. And so that would imply that not only is he doing despicable things with humans and just in that trade, he's also living the life that a sailor would live. It's despicable. He grows up as they would say pretty fast, not living a great life. He eventually actually becomes the captain of his own slave ship where he would travel between England and West Africa. And in the year 1748, now 23 years old, he was returning to England on one of those voyages when a storm hit. And fearing that all would be lost, he goes down somewhere into the ship and finds a book written by Thomas Kempis called The Imitation of Christ. And he begins to read this book and the Holy Spirit just starts to do a work in his life. Now for the next three years, he continues to be a captain of a slave ship, but as the Holy Spirit is working on his life,

he tries to make some reforms. He tries to make the conditions on the ship better. He at times requires his crew to go to mandatory worship services. But at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit continues to convict him that what he's doing is wrong. So he gives up that life and actually becomes a decently well-known abolitionist in England against the act of slavery. And as time passes, he eventually becomes a pastor and he returns to the same area that he used to drop people off at. And he begins to preach the gospel in messages called The Old Converted Sea Captain. This man also had a unique gift in that he could write poetry. And so out of a desire to write music and hymns that people could sing in this day, he began to do that. And the lyric to one of his more famous works goes like this. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Twas blind, but now I see. So we're talking about John Newton who lived from 1725 to 1807. And I'm curious to ask you this question. What did John Newton deserve?

I mean, John Newton ferried humans across the ocean for sale. What did he deserve? What was the punishment for that crime 219 years ago? But John experienced. something that we're going to talk about today, and this is important. John experienced grace. So if you've got your Bibles, we're going to look at Acts chapter 15. And if you remember in the last two weeks, we've talked about kind of this missionary journey that Paul and Barnabas have been on, and the Lord has brought them back to the church at Antioch in Syria. And our text opens like this. So some men came down from Judea and were teaching to brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" So let's talk just a little bit about what we're seeing in the passage so far. So there is now a new doctrinal war that has come to the early church. And this doctrinal war is really about the centrality of the gospel. What's happening here is the question has

come to the church of either what or who saves you. And if you remember, this has become a pattern, right, where the gospel grows and then there's an attack. The gospel grows, then there's an attack. The gospel grows, then there's an attack, right? So this keeps happening over and over again because the early church is trying to spread the gospel. And here's what I think is interesting, right, is what comes to them is essentially a gospel of works, a works-based doctrine that essentially says, I want to put believers back under the law of Moses. Now the Pharisees believed that they were justified by the purity of the Old Testament law. That's what's going to save us is the pure law. And in the Old Testament law, circumcision defined you and it set you apart. So the Pharisees are saying, look, in order for you to be in our group, in our family, you've got to be circumcised. Now I think it's easy for us in 2026 to go, I'm so glad that we don't have that problem, right? I don't think any of you are walking around going, you've got to be circumcised if you want to come to know Jesus. But I would be curious how some of us who might have known the Lord for a while find ourselves in a situation thinking, yeah, but before you come to Jesus, there's a couple things that you're going to have to do. Or hey, before you come to Jesus, I need you to clean that up. Or as we said in the 90s, you better come correct before you come to Christ. It's interesting to think along those lines because doesn't that make us just like the Pharisees? Doesn't that just begin for us to do the same thing where we're saying, hey, before you come to Jesus, there's a couple of things that you need to do. And my friends, that is not biblical. The Bible does not teach them those things. I think it's interesting because it almost feels like I'm going to take the weight that I wear on my shoulders and try to pass it to your shoulders. So when you looked in your Bible at Acts chapter 15, some of your Bibles probably said at the top of that chapter, the Jerusalem council. So the church takes this seriously enough to wrestle with it, right? So they appoint Paul and Barnabas and some other people to go to the church at Jerusalem and then kind of debate this issue out. So this is a serious issue to them. And I want to just say to you, we said this a couple of weeks back, would you continue to pray for your church's pastors and your leaders? And I ask you that, because these are the things that we wrestle with. Like what do we do while we're here during the week?

We wrestle with the issues that come to the church. And so, this is exactly what we see here. And this journey was not a short journey. There was no early, like, rent-a-donkey Uber kind of program, so they would have walked probably 300 to 350 miles to get to this. This is how important this was for the church. Here's what I think is great. So, as they wrestle with this, Peter stands up, and he reminds them of a couple of really important points. He says, number one, God has called me, Peter, to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, and he provided the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to the Jews. And if you guys remember, back in Acts chapter 10, right, Peter goes up on the roof of his house to pray, and he has a vision. And God lets down this tarp, and it's full of animals. And God says, Peter, I want you to rise up, I want you to kill something, and I want you to eat it. And Peter's like, ain't no way, because all those animals are unclean. And I love it, because God's like, no, no, no, don't you call unclean what I have called clean. Don't go there, Peter. And so, Peter reminds them, hey, God called me in that vision to go and bring the gospel to the Gentiles. And if you remember, his next destination was Cornelius' house, okay? Number two, to imply that circumcision is a part of salvation, he says, look, if you want to imply that, then you're putting a heavy yoke or a heavy weight on the shoulders of these Gentiles. And he goes, look, we as a people have not even been able to follow God's law successfully. Y'all remember, right, the nation of Egypt, or the nation of Israel walks out of Egypt. They go across the Red Sea on dry land. Moses goes up on the mountain to get the law, and the nation of Israel's like, do you know

what's missing from this beautiful scene? A cow. We need a golden cow. If somebody, Aaron, if you can get some people together and make us a golden cow, things will be complete. Peter says, we couldn't even keep the law. And so, why would we then say, hey, Gentiles, you've got to complete the law instead. This is an important point for us to hear. The Jews had the track record to prove that the law was impossible to keep. So Peter says this in verse 11, I want y'all to see this. Verse 11 of chapter 15, but we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will. And my friends, this is huge. Grace has come to the Gentiles. Now here's what I think is interesting. If you'll notice, that kind of sits really in a central position in the book of Acts, and that's intentional. For us to see that grace has come to the Gentiles, salvation is through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now some of the things that we've been talking about recently, we've brought up kind of the fulfillment of Old Testament law. And if you remember, Old Testament law was never meant to be abolished. It wasn't meant to be erased. It wasn't meant to be forgotten, and this is why the Pharisees are saying the things that they're saying. They're saying, look, Old Testament law, we have to follow that. But Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection did something the Pharisees did not understand, and that was that He came and fulfilled the law. So it's like this, circumcision brings you into a family, right? It's a physical act, a physical sacrifice that brings you into a certain family.

So in order for you to get in this family, there's got to be a physical sacrifice. Now once you're in the family, there's some things you've got to do, right? You've got to keep the rules. And if you mess up and sin, then there's got to be a sacrifice. And oh, oh, you sinned again, now there's got to be another sacrifice, okay? And those rules really become impossible to follow. So at the cross, Jesus does what no one else could do. He fulfills the law. How does He do that? Because He dies the death that we deserve to die. Jesus becomes the sacrificial lamb that we should have had to sacrifice for us, and He offers us access to that family, to His family, completely free. That's grace, my friends. Romans, chapter 5, verses 15 to 18. I love this, and as I read through this, I want you to notice the number of times the word free gift appears. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God, and the free gift is not like the trespass. gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. But the free gift is not like the trespass. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. So what's grace?

It's unmerited favor. And some of y'all are like, thanks, pastor, that still doesn't make any sense to me. It's kind of like this, have you ever done something wrong and you didn't get what you deserved? How many of y'all sped on the way to church today? Yeah, okay, all right, we have a hand, right? Somebody who's like, I'm not lying in church, I sure did. So grace is like that. Grace is like, I did, but I didn't get what I deserved. One man's sin, right, so Adam's sin brings death into the world, which means this, your first sin, the first sin you committed condemned you to death. That's what the Bible teaches. One act brings death, but yet one man's grace brings life into the world, which means that your first, second, third, fifth, 10th, 100th, 1,000th, for some of y'all 1,000,000th sin, well all those sins are covered. Well all those sins in God's economy have been erased because of the grace of Jesus Christ. What's unmerited favor? Grace is offered to you freely, and especially when you didn't and don't deserve it. That's what God's grace is. Romans 5, 8 says, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In that while you were doing the thing that you know you shouldn't have done, Christ died for you. That's important for us to hear, because it didn't mean that we had to come perfect. God says, I'm going to die for them just as they are right now. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Now we need to understand something about justice as it relates to God.

With God, justice will always win. And I think that's important, because I think the enemy uses what we see in our current culture and in our system of justice to go, see, justice always doesn't win. No, in God's system of justice, the law will always win, which means there's nothing that we can do, nothing that we're capable of doing to earn God's favor. And in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, the Bible says it is the gift of God, and the Greek word for gift in that verse speaks specifically of the word sacrifice. Literally God's grace is a sacrifice of God and not a result of anything that you are able to do. Nothing you've done, nothing you could do, and nothing you will do. So what I want you to hear, there's some three kind of important points about God's grace. For one, God's grace is freely given and it cannot be earned. Romans 6, 23 says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So let's just square with reality. What you earned by simply being born was a life aimed at death. No matter how good you are, you cannot work out your sin. There's no such thing as two rights erase one wrong. That's not a thing, y'all. So it was necessary then for one man to fulfill the law and become the sacrifice we needed for eternal life offered to everyone. So I think grace looks like this. I'm standing before the judge, and laid out in front of me is the good, the bad, and the ugly. The judge says the good's fine, but the bad and the ugly, all of them. Those have to be paid for, and each one of those is a death sentence. And in that same room stands our Savior Jesus, who says, at the cross, I defeated all that. At the cross, I became the sacrificial lamb. So every one of those death sentences, filled. Every one of those death sentences, served.

Jesus says, I offer this free gift of grace to you. Nothing you have to do to earn it, nothing you have to do to get it. You just simply have to receive it. That's what God's grace is like. Look, grace does not come with strings attached. It doesn't come with provisions. It doesn't come with terms of services, and you don't have to click all the stupid pictures of motorcycles in order to earn God's grace. It's completely free to you. Can I also just point out that God's grace is completely free to your neighbors? And we'll come back to that. Number two, God's grace is greater than your sin. Romans 5, verses 20 to 21 says, now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I think some of us approach with grace with the mindset that I think I might have out sinned God. Like some of us walk through life like the black widow from the Marvel movies, like I got a lot of red in my ledger, right? And so, I don't think that I'm going to be able to have fellowship with God because of that. But listen, grace exceeds our sin with trajectory towards eternal life. In the book of Titus, chapter 3, verses 5 to 7, the Bible says, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Listen to me, it is God's choice to save you. You didn't choose it, He chose it. It is God's choice for you to become His son, for you to become His daughter.

And your works have no bearing on that choice. It's not your choice, it's His. Your works have no bearing on God's grace, because when you accept the gift of salvation, you become His son. You become His daughter. And can I just simply point out that God's grace is also greater than your neighbor's sins? Number three, grace abounds. It is active and it is not passive. God's grace continues throughout your entire life, not just at the moment that you give your life to Him, which means this, grace should inform the way that we live. It should teach us how to live. Romans 6, 1 through 4 says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Have you ever gotten a new car, or if you're like the Shell family, a new-to-you car? Y'all know what I mean, right? How do you treat that car? Man, you take such good care of it. As a recipient of God's grace, let us do the same with our lives. As a recipient of God's grace, let us treat our lives the same way. Let us walk in life as new creations. We are free from the rule of sin because we're forgiven. You are no longer a dead man walking, but walking in the newness of life. Imagine how John Newton must have felt after receiving God as his Savior, knowing that

God gave him grace despite the things that he had done. How did he walk around at that time? You're also- free from the shame of sin, because you are no longer defined by it. And some of us still want to walk around with things on our chest, like this defines who I am. And God says, my grace has erased that, and you are free from that shame. Galatians 6.15 says, for neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision. It's not the issue. He says this, but a new creation. You are a new creation in Christ. And God's grace not only abounds to you, it also abounds to your neighbors. And so we've got to then think about what do we do with God's grace. So I'm going to read a little bit more of our passage. This is me picking it up in verse 12. So remember, Peter just kind of drops this huge bombshell about grace, and all the assembly fell silent. And they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name. Now, here's what I think is interesting about what's just happened, and there's kind of a new person that we see, and this is James. And so this is James, who is Jesus' half-brother. He's sometimes referred to as James the Just. He's also the author of the book of James in the New Testament. And I love for a moment, because he uses Peter's, like, whole government name right here, and calls him Simeon. But he does that on purpose because he's trying to communicate, listen, that Peter understands

what he's talking about. It's important for us to know that. And then he has this sentence that he says, God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for His name. So in order for us to maybe understand why he said that and what he's saying, we need to zoom in a little bit on the language that gets used. So God first visited the Gentiles, and the Greek word there is ethnos, okay? So we can look at it and we go, God first visited the nations. That's us. God first visited them to take a people for His name. But that's a different word, right? That's the word laos, which is interesting because that's how the Jews referred to themselves. The Jews did not see themselves as part of the ethnos. They said, look, we are our own people. And James says, I need you to hear me, that's not a thing anymore. We are all one people in Christ. What he says is, look, there's no more ethnos and laos. No, we are all one people in the body of Christ. That's huge. This is why I made a point of saying, and God's grace extends to your neighbors. And God's grace abounds to your neighbors. And God's grace is free to your neighbors. Because again, it gets easy for us who have been saved for a while, who have walked with God for a while, to see our neighbors in a different light, right? If you think back in the Bible, in Matthew chapter 9, the Pharisees are upset with Jesus because He's eating lunch with tax collectors and sinners. And I think all of us have in our heads people that we would also call tax collectors and sinners. We can all think of someone that we're like, no, God probably wouldn't eat lunch with them. But let me help you.

God would eat lunch with them, because them was you before you met Jesus. Them was you before you knew Christ, right? And praise the Lord that God sat at a table with you and fellowshiped with you and brought you into His family. And so the same grace gets extended to your neighbors. This is incredibly important that we are one unified church under the banner of the love of Jesus Christ. That's who we are, my friends. So if we go back to our passage, James then I think just wants to bring some practicality into what he's saying. And he says, look, we should write a letter. So here's what it says, therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. And then he quotes some prophecies from the book of Amos. Now this would be easy for us to go, wait a minute. In the beginning of the chapter, there's this whole debate over circumcision. And so, that felt like rules, and we said, hey, those rules aren't cool, so why all of a sudden do we now get more rules? I don't know that I understand, but so, again, it's easy to see it that way. These are not do's and don'ts. They're not rules. These are means of teaching the Gentiles how to truly love their neighbors, how to truly love their Jewish brothers and sisters. And this letter is the work of the Holy Spirit, which is both relevant back then and relevant to us today. He's speaking to us. To use kind of a churchy word, this is a way for us to not become stumbling blocks to other people. You have freedom in Christ because of God's grace, but not at the expense of someone coming

to know Jesus. One more time, just in case we missed it. You have freedom and grace in Christ, but not at the expense of someone coming to know Jesus. So, the food and the blood-related kind of things that you read about in this, these are recommendations that are related to the kosher laws of food prep, okay? So, that's food offered to idols, food from a strangled animal, food in which the blood wasn't removed in a kosher way. And the issue wasn't that the Gentiles couldn't eat of that stuff. The issue was how do they love their neighbor, okay? So, a couple of things that I want you to hear. Do not go to Price Chopper today and back to the butcher area and go, hey, before I buy these steaks, I just need to make sure that these weren't offered to idols in the back room. If y'all do that, we're having a conversation, okay? Don't go do that, right? This also has nothing to do with how you prepare your steaks. Medium rare is okay, amen. Okay, I'm just saying, right? Come at me with your well-done steak. That's not a thing, okay? It's in the Bible. Well, some of that was in the Bible. So, here's the thing I think that we're trying to get at. You've been praying that your neighbor would come to know Jesus Christ, but you happen to know that your neighbors don't eat certain foods for whatever, maybe religious practices. So, that means that when you invite them over for dinner, you don't serve that on your menu. That's how you love your neighbor well. That's how you care for them. That's what James is getting at in the letter.

It's, I'm going to go out and enjoy a dinner with a friend, but I know my friend's in recovery, so I'm going to choose not to drink, or I'm going to make a wise choice as to where we go. It's the things that we do in front of people who might not know Jesus that would cause them to stumble. So, who are you at the water cooler at your job? Do the things that you say reflect the love of Jesus Christ? Would someone hear what you say and go, they're a Christian? That's how Christians talk about their friends? Or for my students in the room, or my athletes in the room, the things that you say in the locker room, do those things reflect the love of Jesus, or are you different? Or for all of us in the room, what is it that you post on social media? Are you so excited to make sure your political thing gets said that somebody who's not a Christian would look at that and go, and this is what Christians believe? What would be different if your social media page was devoted to people coming to know Jesus? Or your locker room talk, or your water cooler talk? That's what James is getting at when he talks about this in the letter. And then he says, then the application of abstaining from sexual immorality, the word used-