There's Grace for This | Pastor Bryan Jarrett | Northplace Church

pastoring North Place Church in the Dallas Fort Worth area for almost 20 years. We're one church that meets in multiple locations even on multiple continents and today you are one of those locations. The church is not about buildings it is about people and we have the privilege today of sharing the hope of the gospel with you right where you are. There is no way I can know exactly what you're going through or dealing with right now but for almost 30 years I have preached about a God who I know I am confident knows you your struggles knows the very hairs on your head and the thoughts that you think before you think them and he is passionately in love with you and our prayer today is that in our time together you feel our love for you and his presence and we pray that this time together gives you hope. Thank you for joining us. He tells us in Hebrews to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that acknowledge the name of Jesus. That's what we come to do today man. Come on when we sing this out. And bless the those who run to Him who place their heart be confident in Jesus. He won't forsake them. And bless the those who seek His faith to bend their knee and fix their gaze on Jesus. They won't be shaken. Come on. Come on and praise the Lord with me. Sing if you love His name. Come on and live your voice with me. He's worthy of all our praise. Yes, yes, we sing. And bless the those who walk with Him whose hearts are set on pilgrimage with Jesus. They'll see His glory. Bless the those who died and lived with joy and His to give it all to Jesus. Here for Him only. Oh, Jesus. All for your glory. Come on in and praise the Lord with me. Sing if you love His name. Come on and live your voice with me. He's worthy of all our praise. Bring them here up for me. Come on and bring your offering. Sing if you love His praise. Come on and live your voice with me. He's worthy of all our praise. And bless God. Sing sure. Bless God in the darkest valley. Every chance I can. I bless you. Bless God in my eternal empty. Let's go. Come on. Let's sing. Let's go. When nobody is watching every chance I can. I bless your name. Let's go. When the weapons for me. Let's go. When the walls are falling.

Let's go. 'Cause He calls me for me. Every chance I can. I bless your name. Let's go. When the walls are big to you. Let's go. He's always with me. Let's go. He's always worthy. Every chance I can. I bless God in the sanctuary. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. In the darkest valley. Every chance I can. I bless your name. Let's go. My hands are empty. Let's go. ♪ Come on! ♪ ♪ Let's go! ♪ ♪ Let's go! ♪ I bless your day Let's go When it's for you Let's go with the walls and for me Let's go with the walls and for me Let's go with the walls and for me I'm just having sheds I just feel more Let's go with the walls and for me Let's go with it's always with me Let's go for it's always worthy Every chance I get I bless your day Come on, every chance I get I bless your day Let's go with it's always with me Every chance I get Come on and pray, come on in Come on and pray, come on and pray, come on and pray Come on and pray, move it like you love, you love your heart Let's sing if you've done this pain Come on and live on your holy day He's worthy of all heart pain He's worthy of all heart pain One more time to sing His worthy He's worthy of all heart pain Come on give a praise, give a praise

He's worthy of our praise Come on, is He worthy today? We serve such a faithful God We're going to sing a song this morning that we sang Generation to Generation and the reason why we can sing that today is because it's truth remains the same before and today No matter where you are today If you're facing a hard circumstance If you're in the highest of highs on the mountaintops right now We can all say in the room that no matter what comes our way It is well with my soul Lord, we worship you today God, we know when the seasons come and go When there's a hard time, when there's a good time You are faithful and you remain the same through it all We worship you today See you name me, pray Amen When peace lies a river, a ting in my flame When sorrows like sea, be those who own Whatever my love thou has taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul It is well, with my soul Thank you Jesus, It is well, it is well with my soul Oh, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious Vah Oh, my sin, not in far, but alone It is now to the ground # Praise the Lord # # Praise the Lord # # Oh, my soul # # We sing it as well #

# It is # I know I'm in my soul, in his world, in his world, in his world, in my soul. O Lord, Haze the day, when my face shall be sighed. The clouds be worn back as a sword. And the trump shall ease out, and the Lord shall ease in, even soul. He is well with my soul, because he lives. No thank you, Jesus, I can face tomorrow, because he lives. All fear is gone, no, because I know, because I know, because I know, I know. He holds the future, in my His world, the living just, because he lives. No thank you, Jesus, I can face tomorrow, because I know. I was a rich, I remember who I was. I was lost, I was blind, I was running out of time. Sin, separating, that bridge was far too wide, but from the far side of the chasm, he held me in his side. And he made a way across the great divide, left behind heaven's throne, to build it here inside. And there, at the cross, you paid the debt I owed, broke my chains, freed my soul for the first time I had hoped. Thank you, Jesus, for the blood and blood. Thank you, Jesus, has washed me well. Thank you, Jesus, you have saved my life, brought me in. Let's testify this morning, He took our shame and our sin And you took my place, laid inside the tomb's sin And you were buried for three days And then you walked right out again And now death has no steam, your life has no end And I have been transformed by the blood of the land of faith You, Jesus, from the blood of life, thank You, Jesus has washed me wide Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life You brought me from the darkness into glorious Do you believe there's nothing shocking in the blood of Jesus this morning? Let's sing, "There's nothing stronger than the one that's working power of the land of the land of the land of the land of the land of life" They call the sons and daughters, we are raised by our Father through the blood of the blood of Jesus We thank You for the one that's working power

And there is nothing stronger than the one that's working power We thank You for Your land of the land of the land of the land of the land of the land of the land of the land We thank You, Jesus, from the blood of life, thank You, Jesus, you have washed me wide Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life You brought me from the darkness into glorious life Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life Thank You, Jesus, You have saved my life Hey, man, as we welcome our campuses into the service today, we are I just want to celebrate some of them first, I just want to shout out to Wiley, they just recently served in partnership with the Wiley Police Department With serving the community, they served over 1,500 meals and just built bridges In a night out in the community there being present, building relationships, gaining relational equity just by showing up I'm so grateful for Ben and Rachel and the team there and Wiley doing that We're going to talk about some incredible things going on in Garland through the Garland School District next week But I just, we're going to just kind of shout out some of the incredible things that are going on at different campuses Now, let me talk about our students for a minute, our youth ministry, something that's happening, they're able to do because of your generosity Some time ago there was this idea from some of our student leaders about how to mobilize our students to make a difference in the community You know, we had this idea, find a need and fill it, and we were together So what we've done is we're working alongside the programs, a vocational training program within the high school for children with disabilities. And the goal is to try to prepare them with life skills, but hopefully equip them to be more employable and prepare them for adulthood once they graduate from high school. So what we've done is we had a heart to walk in and try to help students that were malnourished, weren't getting fed right, things going on at home and economically, how do we do that?

So we were able to do two things at once. Our youth ministry is partnering with the program that helps vocationally prepare these children with disabilities. We take them, our students and leaders take those students to Costco, I think they have some images of that, and we let them do the shopping. We let them do the budgeting. We provide the finances and the resources as a church and a ministry, and we work alongside them doing the shopping, the budgeting, just experiencing life. Then when they get all of that, we bring it back to the church where they divide it up into snack bags and kids that are then taken back to the school and given to teachers and administrators and classrooms so that when a student is hungry or doesn't have access at home or whatever in a teacher, they know that. They're the first line of that. They don't have to wonder what to do. They have a stocked area where they can provide those resources for that student, and all that's being done in partnership with our youth students and leadership and the young men and women that are in this program training them vocationally, and so we're equipping them, building relationships with them and their families and serving the students in some of our local area schools, and so none of that would be possible without the generosity of this church. This is our tithe dollars in generosity at work being what we call an embodied apologetic.

We are defending our faith by loving people well. And so I just, I want to say thank you. Thank you to our student leaders and our students for loving the way they do, and you for your generosity. Ward, I pray today the seeds that were planted in Wiley, a little bit ago in that community gathering, and I pray for the relationships that are being built with local schools and families, somehow got through the way we love and serve. You get the glory, that is our heart, is that people's hearts are turned toward you because we love well. We are compelled by the love of Christ the Bible says, and so God thank you for the goodness of your people, their generosity, where you continue to bless them so that we can continue to serve in unique ways and love our world. Open our hearts to your word, in Jesus' name, amen, and amen. The first week of November, just coming up here in a few days, I've been asked to speak to several hundred leaders from across our nation. These are men and women who lead networks and denominations, they oversee thousands of churches and literally tens of thousands of ministers that in turn lead millions of Christians and churchgoers across the country. They didn't give me a topic to preach on, they just said we want you to seek God and share with us whatever he puts on your heart.

And so that's what I've been doing, and as I prayed and prepared, I since the Lord asking me to bring them a word of honest encouragement, there'll be a gathering. This conference room will be filled with tired, discouraged, and disillusioned ministry leaders. And I say honest encouragement, because I don't wanna lie to them. I don't wanna lie to them about the complexities of the present we face. I don't wanna lie to them about the complexities of the future that we have been called to navigate. It's not gonna get any easier. But I wanna offer them a real hope in the face of that adversity. Adversity's gonna be there, but I wanna offer them a hope. I wanna call them to something that I'm gonna call you to today. I wanna call us all to an unwavering faith with a disciplined realism. Go in with your eyes wide open, don't ignore the hard facts, speak the truth, but stay faithfully engaged in the process. And as I was finalizing my preparations this week for that talk or that sermon, the Holy Spirit whispered something to me, "Your people need this too." So you're gonna get a version of this first. But before I go any further talking directly to you,

let me say something you probably already know, just pull the curtain a little bit back, a little bit for you to see a great number of pastors and ministry leaders across this country are struggling. In 2022, the Barna Group surveyed the nation's pastors. the last year. Not talking about retiring, talking about walking away, just quitting. And when that follow-up question came, why the top two reasons why so many were wanting to quit or felt the pressure to quit was the immense, number one, the top two reasons, number one, the immense stress of the job and number two feelings of loneliness and isolation. And in many ways, I understand. I have a deep empathy for my colleagues. Next month will mark the 35th year of vocational ministry for me. And I can honestly tell you leading a church today is more complex and more challenging than it has been in any of those previous 35 years. And here's what I also know. Your life is hard too. You're calling, your assignment, your job, your marriage, raising your kids, caring for your aging parents. You could probably say that you're experiencing what might be the most difficult season of your life as well. There's nobody in this room that isn't experiencing some level of difficulty. And for most of us, it's a difficulty that everybody else doesn't see. And some of us are tired in ways that sleep isn't satisfying. And I think that's exactly why as I prepared to speak to those leaders, the Lord whispered to me, "Your people need this too." Look with me to Hebrews chapter four. Listen to what the writer says in verse 16, "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy," and listen to this, "and find grace to help in the time of need."

Most of us, we've quote that verse, it's very familiar to us, but most of the time we're focused on that first half, "come boldly to the throne for mercy." We come to the throne boldly that we might obtain mercy, and we need mercy. We need mercy for what we've done, mercy for where we've failed, but the writer doesn't stop at mercy. He says, "We also come to that throne boldly that we might find grace to help in our time of need. Mercy deals with my past. Grace empowers me in my present. Mercy is God not giving me what I deserve. Grace is God giving me what I need. There is grace being given to help. Empowering grace is the strength I don't have. For a moment, I can't handle, in a season, I didn't choose." And notice we're told to come asking before the throne of God boldly. That sheepishly, not timidly, not apologizing because we're back again with the same need come boldly because the throne we're approaching is not a throne of judgment with the condemning father. It is a throne of grace with a compassionate and loving father. And here's what I've come to believe. There's an empowerment of grace that most of us have never tapped into. So we're trying to live life in our own strength, and we either fail or we survive, stressed out, worn down, and running on fumes. So let me kind of just sum up this whole sermon in one sentence. There's grace for this. For this season, for this calling, this assignment, this job, this diagnosis, this marriage, this grief, this addiction, this struggle with your kids, whatever your this is, there is grace to help in your time of need. Grace comes to help. There's grace for you, and there's grace for this.

Listen closely to what Paul says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, "But he said to me, but God said to Paul, 'My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.'" So whatever Paul is saying here, okay? You're going to practice. But whatever Paul is saying here, Paul is saying, "My weakness, my struggles, my adversity, my fatigue, my challenges, that seems to be where the power of God's grace is most manifested in my life." So he goes on to say, "That was God's answer." And Paul's insight here is, "Now therefore, I will boast because of that. I'm going to boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses." So that Christ's power may rest on in persecution, in difficulties, because Paul had learned this when I am weak, then I am strong through the power of grace. Paul had, he's writing here about what he calls a thorn in the flesh. And for 2000 years, we've been having theological debates about what the thorn in the flesh was, and we've been so busy debating what the thorn was in Paul's life that we miss the power in the response, the answer that God gives. We're arguing about whether Paul's thorn was his failing eyesight, or chronic illness. Was it a person who opposed him? Was it demonic harassment? Was it a besetting sin? And while we argue about the thorn, we miss God's answer. Paul asked God three times to take this thorn away from him, and God did not, but God answered him. And that response, the answer is the point. God's response to Paul saying, take this thorn away from me. God's response is, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. There is an equation for life in that statement. God doesn't say my grace is sufficient, and oh, by the way, I'm going to throw in some power too. He uses the word grace and the word power interchangeably as if they are synonyms, because in God's mind, his grace is his power. I'm not the best math guy, but this is an equation I can understand and handle. God's grace is equal to or equivalent to God's power, and that power of grace is multiplied or amplified in my weakness, my struggle, my adversity, my hardship. Peter makes this same connection in second Peter chapter one, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Again,

grace and divine power are seen as the same thing, and they are multiplied into everything that we need to face life. Here's the problem. Grace has been undersold in the church. We've understood grace that forgives. That's true. We know about grace that saves. That's true. We know grace is a free gift. That's absolutely true. But somewhere along the way, we did not understand or we stopped believing that grace empowers us to do what we could never do in our own ability. We have treated grace like an event. We experienced grace when we said the prayer and gave our life to Jesus. It was something that happened in an altar years ago. Grace for forgiveness, grace for salvation, grace that will get me into heaven one day, and it is all of that. But it is so much more. There is sustaining grace and enabling grace and empowering grace. Grace for a Tuesday afternoon and grace for a hospital waiting room and grace for that meeting that you're dreading that you have to go into tomorrow. And here's why that matters so much. You can only receive from God what you believe, and you can't believe in what you don't know or understand. If you don't know that the grace of God is there to empower you, then you're going to live the rest of your life in your own strength. And that's where many of us are. We're trying to live our lives, fulfill our callings, carry our hardships, overcome our addictions in our own power, gridding our teeth, white knuckling it, getting more frustrated and fatigued every single day. All while the same grace that saved us is sitting right under the surface of our lives dormant. It is present but untapped. This is the reason Paul stopped hiding his weaknesses. He starts boasting in his weaknesses because he realized facing these struggles and hardships and difficulty is where the power of God's grace was amplified in his life. That is where grace, its power is manifest. It's where it is multiplied. So your weaknesses, your hardships, your difficulties, your challenges are not what disqualifies you. They are the very place. And those are the seasons when God shows up the strongest in your life. That's why Paul had this revelation. When I am weak, now I realize that's when I'm strongest to the power of grace. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians 4, "But to each one of us, grace has been given. To each one, everybody that follows Jesus, not to the super saints, not just the pastors and missionaries and vocational ministry leaders, every follower of Jesus has been given the grace needed to endure and overcome.

But here's something you have to understand. Being a good, godly, moral Christian does not mean that grace to endure and overcome is automatically activated in your life. Yes, grace is always present, but we don't always access it. We don't always lean into it. We don't always rest in it. Think about Timothy. Paul loved Timothy. He called him a son in the faith. And in multiple times, in various letters, Paul speaks about Timothy's impeccable character. He calls him a godly young man, uniquely devoted, genuinely caring, a proven co-worker who had served along Paul like a son. If anybody should have had grace running on autopilot in their life, you would think it would be Timothy. But being a godly, moral person doesn't on its own activate empowering grace in your life. Paul has to tell Timothy to stir it up. He writes to Timothy and says, this is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. Some versions say, to stir up the gift, God gave you when I laid my hands on you. Fan it into flames, which means the grace gifts that God is deposited in your life have to be stirred up or stoked like a fire. The grace is always there, but it's not fully accessed or activated or engaged.

If godliness alone stirred up the gift, Timothy would have been operating at full capacity. But he wasn't. The sustaining power of those grace gifts had to be tapped into. They had to be stirred. They had to be fanned. Paul says it this way in Romans, having the gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. I'm not going to load you up on Greek words today, but this one is too good to skip. The Greek word for grace here is chorice. And the word for gifts is charisma. So notice you add two letters to chorice. And you get charisma, the word for gift, because they come from the same root word, which means your gift is a grace. It is a specific portion of God's power that has been placed on your life. So you can do what he's called you to do. And Paul says, activate them, let us use them. Stir it, fan it, engage it. How? Maybe before you fall apart after the meeting, you pause to pray and access the empowerment of grace before you walk into the meeting, you stop and say out loud, Lord, I can't do this, but your grace can, and you stop treating grace like an artifact in a museum that is tucked behind glass

with the date you prayed a prayer for salvation, thinking that's all grace is for, then you start treating grace like it is an accessible power source in your everyday life. And there isn't just grace for facing difficult seasons and challenges, there's grace for your job. There's grace for your career, your workplace, your assignment. Think about Daniel. When we hear the word prophet associated with Daniel's name, we imagine him to be in the vocational ministry, but Daniel wasn't a preacher. Daniel was a government worker. As a teenager, he was taken from a small defeated nation and carried off to Babylon. Babylon overtook Israel, brought back host of slaves as captives, Daniel and many were among that. Babylon was the superpower of the world, the finest scholars, the most advanced architecture, the strongest military, the richest economy. Babylon was number one in just about every category that mattered. And the king is now assessing all of these new captives of how he's gonna put them to work in his kingdom. And he comes to Daniel and his three friends and he says this, "Whenever the king consulted them "in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, "he found them 10 times more capable "than any of the magicians and enchanters "in his entire kingdom, 10 times."

And so Daniel starts getting promoted. And even after Babylon is conquered by the Persians, Daniel still gets elevated through the ranks of the Persian empire. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satrips because an excellent spirit was in him. Now picture what officials must be saying in the Babylonian and Persian Empire. I mean they're looking at Daniel and his friends and they're scratching their heads. They're saying we have been trained by the best minds in the world. We have far better education, access to more than these kids ever had. He's come out of some little country we just conquered. Where is he getting all of these ideas? And the only answer they can come up with, it must be his God. There was an empowerment of grace on Daniel's life that elevated him in a wicked kingdom and that same grace is in you and on you if you will stir the gift and fan the flame. If you're a third grade teacher, grace can make you the most creative and innovative teacher in your building if you will stop trying to do it in your own strength and start praying it through and asking God to unlock what is available to you to the point that other teachers start asking, where is she getting this? The principal will notice, the superintendent will notice and the same is true. If you're a nurse, a mechanic, a lawyer, a farmer, a factory worker, a hair stylist, an accountant, a coach, why shouldn't people around us be scratching their heads because the empowering, sustaining grace of God is giving us abilities that are beyond our natural abilities. They are supernatural grace gifts. We would be different doctors and lawyers and teachers and factory workers and farmers if we leaned into the source of grace that lifts us above our natural gifting and ability. Paul knew this personally. In 1 Corinthians 15 he said this, "But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder," notice this, Paul still worked. I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Don't miss, grace did not make Paul passive. God gave him strength for the task. I work harder than any of them, but it's not I. It's the empowerment of grace, the desire to do it, and the ability to do it both come from God. In Ephesians 2, chapter 2, verse 10, the Bible says that God has prepared in advance works for you to do. And here's what I believe. God intentionally puts you in places, designs your callings, prepares your assignments to be bigger than your ability. You're on a path that is bigger than your ability, and God puts you there on purpose, because he will not share his glory with another. If you can do it on your own, you would take credit for it, but he made your assignment to bid for you so you would have to lean on him. Hear me. If you're calling or assignment or season feels too big for you right now, that's not evidence you missed God. It might be the evidence that you actually heard from him. Daniel's enabling grace got noticed by kings, but some of the most important acts of obedience you'll ever walk out for God will have no audience, no audience at all. There is an empowering grace for every single one of your hard yeses and every single act of costly obedience. Things like forgiving someone without pretending it didn't hurt or confessing a wrong that nobody knew about until you opened up or keeping your integrity when cutting the corner would have paid you more or showing patient love when the same need keeps walking back through the door every time. Nobody claps for that kind of stuff.

Nobody gets promoted for that kind of stuff, but heaven is keeping a record and there is grace for those things too. When it comes to the grace that is needed to be obedient in the hard thing, Paul says this to another young leader named Titus for the grace of God has been revealed to all that's about to read, what we're about to see happens because the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people and we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness and devotion. How? Because the grace of God has been revealed. All is telling Titus grace is not permission. Grace can never become your excuse to live in sin. Grace does not remove my responsibility. Grace supplies me with the help that I need to live for God in the middle of it. It empowers me to live a godly life and give God my costly obedience in an evil world. So let me ask you, what is the yes, the hard yes that you have been putting off? Because it's hard or because you don't feel adequate for what God is asking of you, the conversation, the confession, the apology, the habit that has to go or maybe it's the difficult assignment. He is asking you to step up or step into. There's empowering grace for every hard yes and every act of costly obedience. I wanna show you something today that I've referenced before in the pulpit, but it's something that was so fitting for today, there's a place in the Bible where the power of God's grace

meets the power of impossibility, this mountain of impossibility in people's lives. I wanna show it to you. For 70 years, like with Daniel, the people of God were slaves in Babylon, their homes were destroyed, their families are torn apart. The temple, which was the centerpiece of their identity as the people of God, Babylon destroyed that, wiped it out. It was the centerpiece of their faith in community and that's why Babylon targeted the destruction of the temple, it had been reduced to a pile of rubble. Persia defeats Babylon and Persia eventually starts letting the Israelites go back home. A man named Derubbable led the group back to their homeland to rebuild. And at first there was incredible excitement. In two years, after getting back, they had completely laid the foundation of the new temple and then opposition came and the project stalled. And for almost 20 years, nothing had all happened. Almost 20 years, they walked past an unfinished building, a foundation that was surrounded by a mountain of rubble and every stone of that rubble was a memorial to their defeat. With everybody whispering, this is who you are now. This is what you will always be, a defeated nation, an occupied nation. But then in the middle of that, God tells Derubbable the leader of the returned exiles to finish the temple. Remember, no cranes, no bulldozers, no power equipment.

It is all done by hand and the momentum was gone. The people were weary and their enemies are still there. And into that discouragement, God sends a prophet of God with a word from God, Zechariah 4. This is the word of the Lord to Zarebable. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of Host. Who are you, O great mountain, speaking to the rubble? Before Zarebable, you shall become a plane and he shall bring forward the top stone with shouts of grace, grace to it. The hands of Zarebable have laid the foundation of this house, his hands shall also complete it. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit. There it is again, the same grace that Paul tapped into in his weakness, not by might, not by power, but by the spirit Zarebable is being told to tap into in this moment of hardship. And listen to God talk to the mountain of rubble. Who are you, O great mountain? God isn't intimidated by what is overwhelming them. He's actually mocking it because what overwhelms you is overwhelmed by him. Notice Zarebable's hands are still in the work. Grace and its promise in his life did not make him passive. Grace made him able. His hands laid the foundation and his hands were gonna finish the work by the power of grace. And then God tells him to do something that makes no sense. He tells him to get the top stone in ancient architecture.

The top stone was the capstone. It was the final stone that would have been laid for the whole building set at the conclusion, like at the end, at the dedication. But God says, set it now. While you stare at the rubble, the building hasn't even been started. The walls are not up. Do the last thing first. Celebrate the finish before you see it. It is an act of faith. It is a declaration of trust. And God says, as you place the top stone, look at the mountain of rubble around it and shout to that mountain, declare to it, not once, but twice. Speak to that mountain, grace, grace to it. So let me ask you today, what's your mountain? The diagnosis, the depression, the divorce, the grave you still visit, the aging parent, the addiction, the career you're starting over at 50, the ministry that has worn you down to nothing. Maybe it's a mountain of rubble that somebody else dumped on you. Maybe it is a pile of your own making. Either way, every day, that mountain of rubble reminds you what has crumbled in your life. And it's almost there to taunt you. I want you to name it, like in your own heart, in your own mind right now, what is that mountain? Put a name on it. Assign a name to your mountain. Because as you get it in your mind and your heart, I want you to hear the word of the Lord to you. It's actually to your mountain. Who are you, O great mountain, before blank, say your name, you shall become a plain.

Who are you, O great mountain, before Brian, you shall become a plain. The mountain has been talking to you long enough. It is time somebody talked back to their mountain and you're not going to do it by might. You're not going to do it in your own power. It's not going to come by trying harder, gritting your teeth or white knuckling it one more month. You're going to face this by grace. My spirit says to Lord, the same grace that saved you is the grace that's going to sustain you. The same grace that forgave you is the grace that is going to empower you. The same grace that met you in an altar. When you gave your life to Jesus, it's going to meet you in a hospital room and a board room and a classroom in a courtroom at the kitchen table at three o'clock in the morning. Because when you are the weakest, he is the strongest. When you are empty, grace is full. When you have completely run out, grace is being multiplied. So I don't know what your mountain is, but I know what your mountain is about to hear. To the diagnosis, grace, grace. To the bank statement, grace, grace. To the marriage hanging on by a thread, grace, grace. To the prodigal who has not yet come home, grace, grace. To the addiction you thought you would never be free from, grace, grace. To the calling that feels too big, grace, grace. To the pastor or ministry leader who's thinking about walking away, grace, grace. Somebody needs to declare that over their own life and their own situation. So I'm going to ask you to declare it just as the Lord told the rubable. We're going to declare it today. On the count of three, I want you to shout grace, grace to it. I want you to shout it with me, one, two, three, grace, grace to it. One more time, although we're setting the capstone today, we're praising in advance.

We're declaring in trust that through the power of grace, we have this, like there is strength for this, there is grace for this, that the mountain is going to become a plane. One more time like you believe it, one, two, three, grace, grace to it. The mountain in your life will become a plane. Amen. Come on, give God praise today. Would you stand with me across this room today? There is grace for you. There is grace for today. There is grace for tomorrow. There is grace for this. I have my list. I've been naming mine and I've been saying this for days looking at my list, grace, grace to it. I didn't want to find myself here. I didn't ask for this, but God, your grace is sufficient. Your power is made perfect in my weakness. Let it be multiplied and amplified, grace, grace to it. I'm going to ask our prayer teams at every location to come and make themselves available to serve you today. I want you to understand this. If you need prayer today because of that mountain in your life, you may just want to sit in the presence of the Lord and stir the gift, fan the flame. Something will shift in your heart. I don't know that the church has been lied to. could say a sinner's prayer and climbing the waters of baptism, and that's where grace stopped. Grace is active and present and ready to be in your life, but you've got to fan the flame and you've got to stir the gift. Today you have awareness. Now you can believe when you're facing hardship, you can look around you and say, "God, I can't do this. I need your grace to empower me." We would love to pray with you about that today. If you're fighting this on your own, don't.

Loneliness and isolation is not only an epidemic among pastors. It's among all of us. You don't have to do this by yourself. Let us pray with you. Lord, I heard you clearly, your people need this too. So I pray something will be activated in our life, every marketplace leader, every ministry leader, when they go to work tomorrow, would realize they're not going alone. Yes, your presence is there, but your grace is present to make them better, stronger, smarter, more equipped in whatever you've called them to, wherever you've placed them, not only to face hardships, but to do the task. So will you empower us with grace today? I pray, Lord, you'll bless them, keep them, that you'll make your face shine down on them, that you'll be gracious to them, that you'll turn your countenance, their direction, and that you will give us your peace and your grace today. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. These altars are open for you today. God bless. Hey friends, I just wanted to spend a second with you at the end of this message today and just encourage you. If in some way you've made a spiritual decision, maybe you've given your life to Christ today, you've recently given your life to Christ, you want to talk to somebody about giving your life to Christ, our team would love to help you. We're on the Pando app and have several ministries into various prisons because God has called us to you. We have a heart for forgotten people and forgotten places and that means we serve widows and we serve orphans and we serve special needs, kids, and God has given us a heart for men and women in the prison system because I believe Jesus died for you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and we want to help you know that and discover that. There is an address on the screen that you can communicate with us. We have a team of people that would love to hear from you, especially if you've made a decision to follow Jesus so that we can resource you and point you to tools that can help you grow. Just know that we're praying over you and we're genuinely honored that you've taken time to watch our channel and these messages from North Place Church.