Amen Appreciate good singing brother wall. Thank you for the update I don't know if it if he meant it this way, but after he said they were at that church 20 years and Resigned I thought we've been here 22. I guess that is that the rule you supposed to leave after that? So maybe we're supposed to leave and he about taught me into going with him out west and I You better watch it, they'll drop you support. But I'll tell you, I'll tell you this, you should go. You say, well, you know, I don't, we've said that for many years and your eye affects your heart. And God may not ever call you to the mission field, but here's, I'm going to, I'm going to say this and, um, I think, I think sometimes brother Matt, the fact that we put a little money in the offering plate, we feel like that absolves us from, from anything, you know, I love missions. I put, you know, here's my money every month I give the missions and, um, It's got to be more than that. And some, some will do that. Some will pray, but, but here's what I would say, but, but we don't want to be inconvenienced. In other words, I, how many times have I told you, listen, instead of going to Myrtle beach and throwing your money away down there in that, uh, that sin pit. Won't you save it and fly out west and help one of these missionaries? Well, I don't want to do that. Our vacation is gone. I'll be honest with you. You can ask the girls. Now, the trip out there last year was May. It wasn't all that bad. The trip home was rough. But we drove out to Montana to help with that missionary camp. It was phenomenal. Praise the Lord. Didn't have cell service. Didn't have Netflix. Got to see kids just have, now I know some of you going, I couldn't function without, you can function. You won't die if there's no wifi. And so, um. And some of you say, well, if I went out there, they'd put me to work and I'd have to knock on doors. I promise you this, you probably wouldn't have to do any of that if you didn't want to. A lot of these missionaries, if you'd just come out and encourage them and be with their family and bring a new face and spend a few days with them and just be around them, I believe that'd be a Barnabas to them. Our country is in the shape it is and I'll say it often. I'll say it again. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the fact that when you look and if you look at our mission board, you'll see the United States and you'll see most of the missionaries we support are in our country. And there's a reason for that because when you lose this country, you lose all the rest of it. And our problem is not politics. It's not. It's not donkeys and elephants. It's the fact that we have consolidated ourself in the walls of the church and we've not done a very good job of sharing the gospel across our country and across the world. So I would pray about that. You know what, if I had it to do over again, and I say this, one thing I would have done, Brother Wall, I would have given my life to the Lord a whole lot sooner. I would have started I wouldn't have I would have given let him have free reign in my life a whole lot sooner and I would have avoided a lot of pitfalls in life and I did notice he said young young families so that would leave us out so but I'm still young at heart amen And so turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 if you would. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, we'll look at verse number 9. You'll know this verse and I'm not going to preach long. I just want to bring a few thoughts out of the word of God to be a help to you. And when I read this scripture and you look at it, you go, I know this. Amen. I mean, this is one of the greatest, probably one of the greatest scriptures in the world. Now I know they're all great, but I mean, if you, there are certain ones Psalms 23 is probably the most famous Psalms you know John 3 16 is probably one of the most most known and memorized verses but in times of trouble I'd say this scripture is probably the most known scripture when Paul wrote this he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee that's a big statement my unmerited favor, and we look at sufficient in our mind as just enough, don't we? I mean, just barely enough. If the line's here, it's here, right? But that's not what God's saying. God's saying that his grace is enough. It will satisfy every need that you've got. And so he goes on to say, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. In verse 10, he said, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecution, uh, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then am I strong? Now, honestly, in the flesh, none of that makes any sense. I mean, in our flesh, there's no way to be strong when you're weak. And there's no way that in that you notice what he said that he would glory or he would, therefore I would glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And then he said, I take pleasure in them. A friend I want to say this, you will not do that and I will not do that in our flesh. Infirmities by nature are not things that we welcome. Can we agree with that? And so I'm looking at the life of Paul and that's what I want to study for just a few minutes and I want to understand and I know brother Jose that the fact that when God told him that he had a thorn in the flesh and he had prayed that God would remove it and he would not and so therefore the Lord is speaking In verse number nine, Paul wrote this, and he said unto me, who's the he? It's Jesus, right? He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. my grace is sufficient and so the simple text is one we should all take to heart because I know listen I don't know all of your struggles I don't know all of your burdens I don't know all that everyone's going through but I know what I'm going through I know some of what my family goes through and I'm guessing that you could come up and take your own burdens and lay them on the altar and say listen nobody else knows what I'm going through but I'll say this and no one can really offer satisfactory help to you. I'm trying to help you. You're saying, well, because I said this morning, I've got an issue with my truck and everybody's got their opinion. Nobody's fixed it yet. Right? Everybody's told me what's wrong with it. Nobody's jumped in there. I came to church this morning while I was taking a nap. Nobody ran to my house, popped the hood on that thing, fixed it. Now for some of you Ford people say, well, you ought to get rid of it and get a Ford. I don't want to hear that trash. Right? So when sickness and death and troubles come, we can hear these words in our heart. Now we may not always embrace them. But they're true, right? They're true. And what grace are we talking about here? Because we automatically, brother Matt, we think about the grace of God when it comes to salvation, right? And that's 100% true. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, we quote it by heart, we know it, man, we've got scripture, that's true. But that's one time. Man, I need grace every day. I need God's grace every breath I take. And so it means God's power and his love and his favor. It's the unmerited favor of God. It means all the resources of God are on our side. Means the gates of hell, as he said, cannot prevail, shall not prevail against you. That's what it means. It means you can put all the needs of all the people on earth, every bit of them, all that you've got here, and multiply that across every church, across every nation, across every tribe, tongue, kindred, everybody. You can put all the burdens, all the problems, all the troubles, match them up. Listen to this, and God's grace is still more than that. See, he doesn't have a limited supply, so when he hands out to Brother Jose, he's saying, well, you can't have quite as much. He's got an unlimited supply of resources, so when you think of the grace of God, don't think of limited, think of limitless. So here are a few things I think about the life of Paul. Paul had a thorn in the flesh which he had asked God to remove but God chose not to. By the way, God's sovereign and God is all-knowing and God can do whatever he wants to. And by the way, doesn't need our permission to do it. So the Lord would not remove the thorn, but he assured him that this abundant grace would be more than he could ever need. And Paul knew that, brother Johnny, because there's no way if he'd prayed and prayed and prayed God would remove this thorn. It had to be real to him. Now let me say this. I'm just saying Christians in general, I'm not pointing to you. I'm not saying anything. We don't believe that book. We in theory believe it. We intellectually believe it. But don't tell me when you go through trials, God's left me. God isn't enough and God has not provided. Don't claim scripture when things are good and then call God a liar when things aren't good. Amen. Because I've seen enough in Christians. See, the problem with, again, where a lot of folks don't want what we got is because they see how we act when we go through trials. His grace is sufficient when everything's good. But all of a sudden, when it's us and trials, you know, when Brother Jimmy's going through trials, now, Brother Jimmy, God's grace is sufficient. Brother Jose, God's grace is sufficient. But when I'm going through trials, you know what? No, it's not. I need something more. Amen. Don't get all spiritual on your Facebook page when you're not living it everywhere else. Amen. You've proved God's grace is sufficient by the way you walk daily, not some quote you can post. Hallelujah. That's good preaching. I can see you walking a lot farther than I can hear you talking. And so the Lord would not remove the thorn, and he may not remove your thorn, but his grace is sufficient. You can't say that God's grace is sufficient until you've tested God's grace. So I think about Paul's life and I think of a few things and I got a lot of points but I'm going to be brief with each one of them because I don't think we need to labor on them. But I think of Paul's life and I think of some areas of life where God's grace was sufficient for him and will be for us. Number one is sufficient in the hours. See, you're going to have some hours, some seasons in life. And the Bible said, talks about those seasons in the Old Testament. We have hours and seasons in our life. And so, first of all, it's sufficient in the hour of salvation. Listen, when you think about Paul and his conversion, he was Saul, and he became Paul, but he didn't choose, he didn't go to the courthouse and get a name change. He had a conversion experience on the road to Damascus. And so, his grace is sufficient for conversion, for Paul was once Saul. There's a new name written down in glory, and it's mine. Man, I'm glad God changes our name. Amen? I'm glad He writes it different. It's a new man, not the old man. And so on the road to Damascus, he had an experience. He didn't just say a prayer, he met the Lord. Amen? You ever meet the Lord, it'll be an experience in your life you'll never forget. You ask people, say, when did you get saved? Well, I'm not exactly sure. You may not can write down exactly the date and time, but if you've ever met him, listen, if you met the president, good or bad, whoever you pulling for, right? You would remember that, right? It's amazing to me someone can meet Trump or Biden or Harris or Biden or Obama or George Bush or Ronald Reagan. I met him I shook his hand. You know and oh it's the greatest thing ever happened. But you're telling me that you've met the King of kings and the Lord of lords and you don't know when it happened. Hallelujah. Man, I'm talking about the... I'm about to help myself. I'm talking about the creator of everything, the one who died on the cross, the one as the choir sang, who was buried, rose again on the third day, and you're saying, I'm saved, but I don't know when it was. Now, you may not can pinpoint the hour and the time, but boy, I'm telling you what, if you've ever experienced Him, you'll know that it happened to you. So we have to have faith and this grace is sufficient in our conversion. So we are not reformed, we're redeemed. It's also sufficient for the hour of salvation for completion. I want to help you with this. Over and over in the writings of Paul, he talks about the completion of self. It's acceptable to God. It's acceptable to us, but it's acceptable to God. There's nothing that can be added to it. Well, I got to get baptized. No, you should, right? Because you remember, you remember those Jews and Peter was right in there with them, brother Tim. Well, you got to get saved and you got to get circumcised and then you can be a good Christian. And Paul's like, no, no, we're not adding anything to what Jesus did. Can I say this? I've been an independent Baptist my whole life. Sometimes we're real good at adding stuff. Amen. Well, you've got to get saved, right? Praise God. You've got to get baptized. I'm with that. You've got to dress right. You should. It doesn't have anything to do with salvation. You've got to listen to right. You've got to burn all your music. You should, but it doesn't change the fact that you got saved or not. Let's not confuse salvation with sanctification. Amen. Salvation is what the Lord did for you at Calvary. Sanctification is you progressively becoming more like Christ. And by the way, if you don't line up with somebody else's version of what that looks like, that don't mean you're not saved. Amen. We got a bunch of Pius Pharisees running around our movement sometimes. See, God's unmerited favor gives us pardon through the work of Jesus Christ, not in something you do. If it's what you did, he didn't need to go to Calvary, did he? So sufficient in the hour of salvation, number two, sufficient in the hour of sin. Well, what do you mean by that, preacher? She sang it this morning. If you didn't listen to what she sang, over and over he molds me and makes me. You know what that's called? That's for reconciliation. It's bringing us back into fellowship with God. You don't lose your salvation, but you sure lose fellowship with God. You say, I don't agree with that. Well, the Bible said that if a man has aught in his heart, if he has a disagreement or if he and his wife are not right with each other, that you can't pray. God won't hear you. Right? Sin will separate fellowship with God. He won't kick you out of the family, but he might kick you out of the house. Right? He might put you on probation and restriction. My mom didn't ground me. She said, you're on restriction. I'm like, what in the world is a restriction? I didn't, I thought it was something. I thought I knew what being grounded was, but she done threw a whole nother term on me, Ms. Pace. She said, you're on restriction. I said, what in the world is that? That's worse than grounding. So God's saying, listen, I'm not kicking you out of the family, but there's gotta be some reconciliation before the fellowship's right. Some folks, and here's the problem, Brother Chad, see, what we've done is we've caused people to doubt whether or not they got saved now if you've never been saved you ought to get saved but if you've truly been born again and you're just not walking with God you need to be reconciled and here's how you do it you repent let me say it again repent you don't have to get resaved right So we need some reconciliation. God extends us reconciliation because of His grace. His unmerited favor. You don't deserve it, neither do I. What did God, we'd figure that out with each other sometimes. Well they don't deserve, well Jerry did this to me, he doesn't deserve my forgiveness. You don't deserve God's forgiveness. My goodness. You say, I don't know about walking on water, but Jesus, well that's a lie. Peter walking on water, right? I'm just, we are to be reconciled and we're reconciled by the cross. And then for restoration. Brother Tim mentioned this, restoration. Restoring a weaker brother. Now that don't mean, listen, we gotta understand something. That doesn't mean sweeping everything under the rug. Restoration is like setting a broken arm. You put it in a cast. Sometimes restoration means, listen, love you, but we're going to have to sit you down for a little bit. That's called church discipline. Well, you don't hear that anymore. You know why? Because there's too many stinking churches. You discipline them at this one, they'll run off to the next and go, I'll tell you what they did to me at that other church. Right? So people going from here to there. See, here's the problem. You know why God does not condone divorce? Now listen, I understand it happens. Some of you in here, it's happened to you, and I'm not critical, okay? But God wants us to figure out ways to reconcile and restore relationships. Now sometimes that's impossible, brother Dennis. Sometimes, listen, someone runs off and they're like, I don't love you anymore, and I don't care who you are, and I'm going, and you can't fix that. But all this, you know, irreconcilable differences and we just couldn't get along. Well, that's the way church is. You better figure out a way to get along. That's why God gives you a remedy for that. He's like, your brother's got all to get you, go to him. They don't deserve that. No, that's what the Bible tells you to do. restoration some people mess up brother Tim and you know what you do you say okay listen brother Johnny I love you you did this and we're not I mean let you know we got it we got to take care of it so we're gonna have to you can't sing in the choir for a month ain't gonna tell me I can't sing in the choir I'm gonna leave the church then they'll go somewhere else you know what they'll do Jump up in the choir. It'd be like this. It'd be like you discipline your kids and them saying, well, I'm leaving. And then them going down the street and saying, my mom and daddy are tyrants and I can't live with them and they're abusive. And so would you let me live with you? Well, sure. Come on in. Right? So the restoration has to take place and we're to restore each other, not throw them in the dump, help them to get back in fellowship with God. That's biblical. Right? Church discipline doesn't always have to be a bad thing. If it's done right, it ought to be a positive. By the way, church discipline is not every time somebody makes you mad, preacher. Right? Bless God, they're sowing discord in the church. No, they just didn't agree with you on something. You don't have to agree with me on everything. You can be wrong if you want to. That's up to you. See, we're to restore and we are restored to walk with God. So it's sufficient for the hour of sin. When sin happens, that we as individuals can be reconciled to God if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to be forgiven. And then also we're to restore each other, right? No, because you can't do it in your flesh. I mean, if I didn't do that, I'd be bad at bro-chat all the time. He sends me mean tweets, right? And then number three, sufficient for the hour of suffering. And we sure don't like that. Can you name of someone other than Jesus that has suffered more than Paul? I mean, he's stoned, he was killed, he was thrown in prison. Every time he went to a town, he'd just go and say, hey, where's the prison at? Because that's where I'll probably sleep tonight. Now he's got a thorn in the... See, here's the thing. God let him see heaven. And then he said, no, I got to put this thorn in... I got to give you this thorn. to keep you humble because I've shown you things nobody else has ever seen so if I don't buffet you with this thorn you'll go around telling everybody what you've seen right? that's what Paul said so he said here's what I want to ask you you're going to have to dig a little bit on this one If you could see God's power and glory in such a way that it changed your life like it did Paul, would you be willing to accept the suffering that came with it? Because if you won't, you'll never see it. I didn't say God necessarily make you, but if you're not even willing, And that's what Paul said right here. He said, listen. He said, my grace is sufficient for thee, right? And so therefore he said, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So he said, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So something Paul experienced. With Jesus Christ, he said that that experience is worth much more to me than the fact that I would be free of physical suffering. Now that's why let's be honest as preachers. That's why we don't, we don't have the power of God on us, right? There's not many preachers that suffered like some of them old timers did. But there's a lot of, there's behind them, you ready for this? Behind them there was churches that were willing to suffer. Now let's be honest, I'm not critical of you, I'm critical of me. Here's what I wanna ask you, would you do it? Would you suffer? If God's power could rest upon this place and upon this preacher. Now see here's the thing, cause I know and I'm not critical, I just know human nature. People say, pastor I pray for you. What do you pray? I pray God will bless the pastor and his family. I appreciate that. But have you ever prayed, God, will you let your power rest on me? Will you give him insight into the word of God for this Sunday that would so touch hearts See what I'm saying? Praying for me is not just bless the pastor. Praying for this missionary and his family is not just bless them Lord. What do you mean bless? Because here Paul said he's blessed to have infirmities, right? So the power that the old time move of God that used to happen was because preachers and I listen I'm guilty but Justin taught a great Sunday school lesson and he was honest with those teenagers I'm guilty of some things I'm guilty of not reading my Bible actually I'm the same but let me ask, are you? You spend more time podcasting, Facebooking, you spend more time on your face before God? See if your prayer closet's not wore out Right? If you don't have some neat knee prints in the, in the floor, good chance. Maybe, you know, we don't, we don't want God's miraculous powers. Not much. We say we do. Paul was willing to suffer. I'm not talking about, I got canceled, right? But more preacher think being canceled is suffering today. than could imagine. I'm, bless God, I'm so straight and so strong I got canceled off of social media. Who cares? I'm talking about, I'm talking about, I remember reading about Carl Lackey. If you didn't know Carl Lackey, oh my goodness. Son of that's the meanest preacher that ever walked the face of the earth. He preached against everything that was in the book, some things that weren't in the book, and some things that nobody had a book about. But he loved people. And I heard when he died on the streets of Mount Airy, there was homeless people and drug dealers and people that had been in jail, and they were all up there weeping. Even though he preached hard, he loved them. See, we live in a day when you're hard on people, they think you're mad at them. Right? So Paul's talking about suffering. And notice in verse 10, he said, I take pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities. You can't do that in your flesh. In persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. We're more concerned about being comfortable. And so we're in a day in 2024 going into 2025. It's like, well, I want God's power, but I won't pay for it. You can't have both. I want revival, but I don't want to pay for it. Listen, what are you doing on Saturday night? Now, some of you can't be here, I get it, but you can pray at home. Brother Jose, I mean, Brother Jose, I'm going to be honest with you. He has a better number at his prayer meeting down there than we do. But now I found out why. He serves them pizza. Right? He's got some tricks up his sleeves. I'm going to have to start writing them down. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's a smart man. But we want God's power. It's going to cost me too much gas to drive up to that church and pray with you on Saturday. I don't have time, preacher. I've got stuff to do. I've got to shoot deer. I've got to do some fishing, play golf, cut the grass, rake leaves. See what I'm saying? Let me say this. If you're at home praying, I'm okay with that. That's just like people, some don't come to visitation. If you're handing out tracts and you don't, hey, what am I going to say? Right? Keep doing what you're doing. See, that hour of suffering, when you've got God's grace, you realize that they don't defeat you. Paul, listen, he writes this young preacher boy, he says, listen, Timothy, He said, I finished my course. I've run a good race. I've kept the fight. My departure's at hand. How do you know that? Well, God showed him that. Suffering don't defeat you. They don't define us. When you have God's grace, your sufferings don't define you. There's a season you're going through. then I'm gonna hurry I got two more points I'm just gonna go through them number five sufficient in the hour of sorrow well in parting there's gonna be a day when you leave this place Paul's leaving and he leaves this testimony to this young preacher boy he wasn't whining about the ministry he's he's he's encouraging him and then in pain Paul had pain disappointments, hurts from others, right? Demas has forsaken me for this present world. He had betrayal, right? Then number five, sufficient in the hour of separation. There's come today when all of us face the death of family and friends, right? that courage that you see in some people's lives when someone in their life dies and they know they're in heaven it's a courage God gives them you can't do that in your flesh you need God's grace and you don't you don't even understand it somehow God comforts you and helps you through that and then in a calmness a peace You go and people lose their mind when sometimes when that separation takes place. I don't want to think about me and Miss Ellen not being together. I don't want to think about one of us going. But let me tell you this and I'll close. I've seen too many people in our church that have lost loved ones And I've seen God's grace on them. And I've seen how they've dealt with it. How they remain faithful. Let me say this, that I know there's hope. I know there's hope, right? Now I'm not saying everybody handles it the same. And I'm not critical, but I've seen over time how God heals the broken heart. I'm telling you, whatever you're suffering, Whatever your life, whatever's going on, His grace is sufficient. His unmerited favor He gives you is more than you'll ever need. You cannot exhaust God's supply of what He wants to give you. That may cost a little something, may cause some suffering, but it's worth it. Again, I ask you, are you willing to suffer with the power and presence of God in your life. Because you may have to. You may have to. You can't have the best of both worlds. You can enjoy it here, or you can enjoy it there. But you're probably not going to enjoy it here and there. So let's stand together. Amen. Let's bow our heads. The altar's open. We're going to do this. I want to get Kristen can I can we sing for for invitation Jesus is still there she got you got this isn't that word that aspire heads Kristen's gonna come saying I about this I love this song I think sufficient for the hour he is the answer I may not have words to say I may not always be there with the right terminology You may think that there's no hope, but Jesus is always the answer. If you need to come, you come. If you need to be saved, you're not sure exactly what that means, we'd love to show you. If you're going through some trials and struggles in life, I'm glad God's grace is sufficient. If you have questions, He's got answers. He's always the answer. I might put her on the spot, but that'll be all right. You mind the Lord. Would you pray about God's will for your life? I don't want to go to the mission field, it'd be too hard. I don't want to do that, preacher. I got my life all planned out. Well, what happens if your plan's wrong? What if you don't even know, really, the direction? Let God have your life, young person. Mom, Dad, Mamaw, Papaw, He'll use you too. Listen to her, she sings. If you need to come, you come. Prove that God's not really real ♪ While others say they know for sure ♪ His love you cannot feel ♪ But I know he's real within my soul ♪ For one day he cleansed and made me whole ♪ And Jesus is still the answer ♪ For that longing deep in your soul ♪ Jesus is still the answer ♪ And the time and ages roll Jesus is still the answer. He's the answer for your soul. And though some may say he does not fit with their philosophy, I know Jesus is still the answer. He's always been. and always will be. Some men pretend that things of this world have brought them peace of mind. But with the dawn of each new day, new thrills they try to find. Not until they meet the Prince of Peace can they ever hope to find relief. For Jesus is still the answer for a world that's seeking for peace. Jesus is still the answer And the time and ages roll Jesus is still the answer He's the answer for your soul ♪ And though some may say he does not fit ♪ With their philosophy ♪ I know Jesus is still the answer ♪ I know Jesus is still the answer I know Jesus is still the answer He's always been and always will be