Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor

AMAZING GRACE
by Pastor Kevin Badgley

Some in here today need to forgive. We need to forget. We need to let go so God can bless us. There are a lot of blessings that God sends whenever we let go and let God. Are you listening? We miss a lot of blessings, in fact, sometimes we can't even keep our health if we don't let go of unforgiveness. I thank God he is in the business of forgiving and setting every captive free.

Today I want to talk to you about Amazing Grace. I believe the best way to be put together is to be assembled by God. A lot of times that means being broken all to pieces. You might be going through something physically, emotionally, spiritually...whatever it is, but he's gonna break you down all to pieces. It's because a broken and contrite heart God will not despise. How many remember the scripture in Psalm 51? Grace is an awesome thing. Now, I'm not talking about cheap grace, where you can get by living like the devil, or living like the world after you're saved. According to the Word of God, when you're saved you're not supposed to act like the world. You're not supposed to act like you used to act before you got saved. Some people got saved so early in life they didn't have a thing to think over so they just grew up thinking you can act like the devil and still go to church. Sometimes I think people that have grown up in the devil for a long time...and I don't think it's the will of God to do so, don't misunderstand me...when they get saved they can appreciate the grace of God a whole lot more than somebody that grew up in it.

When the money's running thick from the day you are born, you don't know what poverty is. But, if you were born in poverty, raised in poverty, grew up in poverty in your soul...and suddenly you're made rich by the blood of Jesus, you start appreciating what that rich is! Now, I'm not saying that anybody should go out and backslide or that people should be raised in poverty so that grace can abound. Not at all! But, I am saying that sometimes we as church people forget about the grace of God. I don't preach that you can get saved and then go live like the devil. I'll reiterate that. The Bible declares it in more places than one. In fact, I believe that's why the Bible's so long. There are 66 books, and it's enough to cover every situation a human being can or ever would go through. If you'll study it out and find your situation in there, it'll keep you from backsliding. Otherwise, all it would say is just receive Christ as Savior and be saved. There wouldn't be any more to the Bible than that if you couldn't backslide.

I thank God for the GRACE OF GOD. I'm living by the grace of God right now. I am healed by the grace of God right now. I am saved by the grace of God right now. Every one of you are too. You can set there and get in pompous religion, but you haven't got anything but what the grace of God gave to you. You haven't got the breath in your body except what the grace of God gave it to you. If you haven't got the grace of God...you can have all of the religion you want...but you haven't got God and hell will be your eternal home.

We need to take another look at this thing called grace. It is amazing. It is awesome. We lose sight of it many times. We get so caught up in the workings of the church, caught up in the workings of the ministry, caught up in the workings of witnessing, or just trying to eke out a living in this world that we forget about God's amazing grace. It is amazing that I can stand before you today. It is amazing that I can preach the gospel to you. It is amazing that, by the help of others in prayer and seeking the Lord, we've been able to build this church. It is amazing that we can even believe God could ever revive this area; it's been dead so long. Let me tell you something, amazing grace has got us this far and amazing grace is gonna take us home. Amazing grace SHALL bring revival.

It's not how talented you are. It's not how many works you've committed to the Lord or how much money you've got. It's not now much influence you've got. It doesn't matter who mama or daddy is or was. It doesn't matter who your kids are or how talented they are. The only reason any of us are alive right now is because of grace. It ain't nothing else.

You can be called of God to do a mighty work and flesh thinks, Well, God can't kill you till he's done with you. God's not gonna destroy anything he's already begun, but if you turn around, he will most certainly destroy you. It's only by grace we're allowed today to go on for the Lord. We are NOT indispensable. We are not irreplaceable. It is by the grace of God that we're doing anything. It's by the grace of God we preach translation and begin to somehow feebly grasp little crumbs of understanding of it. It's by the grace of God we can even feel the anointing in our service. It's by the grace of God we can have any kind of move of God on this platform or out there in the pew.

It's by the grace of God that God is still dealing with you. God doesn't have to deal with anybody. Nowhere in the Word does it say God has to deal with anybody. He's not willing that any should perish. He wants all to come to repentance, but if you continue to be stiffnecked and hardheartedly resist the Spirit of the Lord, he doesn't have to give you anything else. Don't you know you can resist the Spirit of the Lord, as a child of God, so much that you grieve the Lord? You can always tell somebody who's out of grace. I believe grace is a gift of God. It's given, handed over unmerited to all of us, every one of us. You can always tell one who is out of grace because they're no longer gracious. If you've got grace, you'll be gracious. If somebody insults you, you'll be gracious and smile and turn your head.

When you're hurting and you're down and out and say well, I just can't do nothin' for the Lord today! What did grace to at Calvary for you and me? I don't think he wanted to carry that cross up the hill, since most of his body was beaten away. But, he DID it.

It's by grace we're alive. Many of us have come close to being hit by a semi. Many of us have come close to being destroyed in a storm. Some of us have seen warfare in various forms. Some have seen domestic violence. Some of us have been beaten as children. Some of us have been a beater. Many times God lets us see grace in the eyes of a child...maybe one that you just got through bouncing off the wall...who will reach for you with open arms and say Mama, or Daddy, don't do that no more. Maybe that's grace. You don't deserve those little hands reaching out to you, but they do, and that's grace.

When you won't go to church, won't seek the Lord, or won't fast, pray, or read the Word, and your family's going to hell in a hand basket and you know it...and yet God still keeps them alive...and he'll look around and say since Mama and Daddy won't do it I still am going to give grace to that family. I'm going to ask that preacher over there, or I'm going to ask that witness over there, or that Grandma way back over there if they will pray, and I'll keep them alive another day.

You don't have any talent at all, unless the grace of God gave it to you. Everything you got God gave it to you. Everything! Don't you boast in front of man. Don't say holier than thou...I can pray better than somebody else, I can preach better than someone else, I can quote the scripture better than someone else. You don't know the Word of God better than somebody else. God gave it to you by his grace and he can take it away.

God is dealing with me about grace. He GAVE grace. I read in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith..." A lot of people think we're saved through faith, but they are saved by GRACE. He gave the measure of faith and then you went forward, but grace brought that faith so you could believe God and ask God to set you free. Peter talked about "growing in grace". There are a lot of people trying to grow in faith without growing in grace. They become like the one in 1 Corinthians 13 who knows all things, can expound all mysteries, can pray with the tongue of men and angels, or give their body to be burned. God says they are a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. You've forgotten the grace God gave you and you're not giving it out. You have no charity.

It's by grace we take our next breath. Who gave you breath when you were born? The doctor might have slapped your behind and got you started, but God put that breath in your mouth. You say, where did it come from in the beginning? The Bible says God breathed into Adam's nostrils and gave him the breath of life. He became a living soul. Grace brought that thing. Grace brought us Eve. He said I will bring enmity against thy seed and against the serpent's seed. Thou shalt bruise his head and it shall bruise thy heel. He gave us the promise that would be redemption.

The first time the Bible even mentions grace, it talks about Noah. All of the world was wicked before God. He got so angry at man he said he regretted even making man. Can you imagine? God repented in his heart that he even made man and then WE get high and mighty as soon as we're saved. Suddenly we're the gift of God? Suddenly we're suffering so much as we serve the Lord, we got calluses on our hands. Or, perhaps it's a buffeting spirit or it's the devil hitting me. That's what it is. The devil's giving me a fit. That's why I'm having so much of trouble. I didn't know you had such an abundance of revelations that he had to send a buffeting spirit. Where is your revelation? When did you last have it? Why have you not spoken it before now? The Bible says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:" Not the gift of faith; the gift of grace.

Grace has brought us thus far. Grace got us out of the garage and brought us out to a little place on the side of the hill that wouldn't grow anything but Johnson grass, and that rather poorly. It wasn't a good spot. We had to level this thing. Then we had to dig the hole for the basement. We had all kinds of trouble finding things. In construction we had a few troubles, but grace has brought us thus far. Grace will take us the rest of the way through. Don't think you will ever leave grace back there somewhere.

Paul admonishes us that a lot of people think "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" so let's continue to sin so grace will abound some more. He said, God forbid. As we serve the Lord, with imperfection, we still have never left grace behind. Grace gave us a place. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." Grace did that.

"Not of works, lest any man should boast." If you find a Christian who is boasting on anything they've got in the Lord, grace is not there. I've done this. I've done that. I believe this. I'm doing that! It's good to exhort one another but when you go to boasting...the Bible says all such rejoicing is vain. A lot of people can't even bridle their tongue. That man's religion is vain according to the Word of God. Grace, beloved, GRACE...don't ever forget it or you can't run. Don't ever forget how you got there. Somebody said, well, I was smart enough to get in. Then you're not in. You just think you're in. Some people say I paid the sacrifice and I got what I wanted from the Lord. Jesus paid the sacrifice and you just tapped in a little bit. It's "Not of works, lest any man should boast." If you find a man, a woman, or a young person that is boasting in their works, grace is not there. God brought it by grace so man couldn't boast. He brought your next healing and mine. Our next breath is in the hands of the Lord.

Grace is longsuffering. It draws on men. It pulls on men. It says "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Grace says, forgive and I will forgive you, while you're tearing down your own house. Grace says, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not", while you settle in a puddle of melancholy so deep you're nearly drowning.

Grace is moving on us today. We couldn't preach the gospel except we have our next breath. We couldn't know the gospel except grace brought it to us. Don't you ever think you have gotten too big to be brought down low. If we do, we shall surely fail.

Grace called to Noah one day. The Bible declares that Noah found grace in the eyes of God. You know what we need more of? We need another measure of faith today, but we need more grace. The Bible says, "But he giveth more grace." We need some more. Some of us are running out of grace because we've gone to bragging. We've gone to getting bitter in our souls. I've suffered from this myself. We've gone to saying, God, why don't you move? God is fixing to move...away. Grace brought us in and grace will bring them in that you're praying for, not haughtiness, hatefulness, nose stuck in the air...if it would rain too hard, you'd drown. Grace has brought us thus far. Grace will lead us home.

Noah was one man amidst millions of people. It is estimated that there were six million on the planet at the time of Noah. There were a lot of people there for hundreds of years. The Bible says one man found grace. Beloved, when I came to Jesus, I was looking for grace. Every one of you were conceived in sin, you were dirty, without hope in the world, and had to find Christ.

You can find a word. You can find a preacher. You can find an offering. You can find a church. You can find an altar. You can find anointing. You can find joy. You can find anything you want to find, but if you don't find grace you cannot be saved. Every one of us is looking for mercy--unmerited favor. We don't deserve it. I heard a preacher one time say that a good example of grace is when a thief breaks into your house, steals your valuables, and then you go and bail him out, and pay for the damages yourself. That's grace. Grace is whenever you pray for somebody and they spit in your face and say all manner of evil against you falsely for Jesus' sake, not even your sake. I've gotten mad at God so many times, I'm taking this for you, I hope you know. He says, I took it for you at Calvary, I hope you remember. Grace...it's amazing.

We forget where we came from. The Bible says, "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." He wasn't talking about remembering where you came from, he was talking about you wanting to go back where you came from and getting out of grace altogether. You can fall from grace if you so choose. I don't choose to.

The deceitfulness of the heart will pull you away from grace. While you're out there contending, and chewing, and trying to be this, and doing that, and arguing over minor points here and there, and all these other things...God says they are going to need grace and they're going to need it soon cause they're ending up on their face. While you are falling on your face, somebody out there is praying. Somebody prayed for everybody in here.

In John 17:24 Jesus prayed, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am..." None of us can boast. Grace has brought us thus far! Don't throw out the knowledge of the Word of God and even the point where we might translate. Jesus was translated by the devil on three occasions as he was being tempted. Translation is wonderful, but when we get our eyes off of Jesus just to get it on a gift, we lose grace because we're wanting to boast. It's like we say, okay Lord, set me down, I'll take it from here. You won't get one step, because as soon as Satan hears you say that, he stops you. As soon as you start blaming the thing on somebody else...some even blame God...the devil's got you and you're not going anywhere. In fact, you might even be smitten, physically or certainly spiritually. Some of us are in grave danger. We're out from under grace. Anybody that is out, or getting out, from under grace is going further than somebody else's prayers will cover them. Willfully, stubbornly resisting the things of God...there'll come a day when they won't be gracious any more. In fact, they won't even be receptive to grace. It will make them angry. Don't you pray for me!

I heard of a movie star one time. They claimed that on her death bed she defied them. She was a great actress. On her deathbed they brought a preacher in and she said DON'T YOU PRAY FOR ME! She rejected the grace of God. She went to hell! If we don't have the grace of God in our lives, we're going nowhere. Some of you got slowed down because you were running too fast to hell. He wanted to stop you, to slow you down, to set up a roadblock so you would stumble. You're not walking right even today. God's trying to get your attention. You'd better listen; grace is calling you. Grace doesn't have to any more. It could be your last call.

Grace delivered Jonah. Jonah willingly refused the call of God. He said, No, I'm not gonna preach! I'm not gonna serve God. I'm gonna go on a ship, but I'm gonna go with the world. They had to throw him overboard; they didn't have any other choice. God made it where they didn't. As the ship spewed him over, the fish took him up. God prepared the fish. A bunch of you are in the belly of a fish right now, and you're nothing more than contents, contents in a church. You have a choice to remain there as the contents of the church or to be spewed out and humiliated and come back under the grace of God.

Did you notice that Jonah wasn't under grace anymore until he was spewed out? He didn't look too good, but let me tell you something, it doesn't matter what you look like. It doesn't matter what you feel like. Jonah looked awful and God said now you're back under grace; get going. A lot of people use grace until they're at the end of the rope and then they cry to God.

What did grace do for Moses? He was a wanted man living in a foreign land for 40 years. Grace set a bush on fire to see if he would turn aside. It wasn't consumed. God is burning the bush. He's burning you. He's burning your finances. He's burning up your body. He's burning up your mind. He's burning up your family. He's doing something to get you to turn aside and see. That bush meant something. God might even set fire to a whole barley field and burn it all up to get your attention. It got the man's attention. Why? Because he wanted to get grace. Moses was out of grace. If Moses hadn't answered that call of grace, he'd have died a murderer. Look at the difference when he yielded to the Lord. Grace argued with Moses, back and forth. Moses said I can't talk and I can't preach. God said, Who made man's mouth? I can make you preach.

A lot of people don't want to be made to do anything. I wish I could be made to be sanctified, made to be like Jesus, made to walk in his statutes, made to be a witness of God, made to go to heaven. I don't want to have a free will. My free will, will send me to hell faster than anything, but I haven't got any choice. I've got something that is almost as good--it's called the grace of God. If I will even try to press on in the things of God, God's grace will cover the gaps and help me along the way. That's the only thing doing it today. Some are standing over a precipice, about to go off. We've messed with the grace of God, and messed with it, and messed with it. God help us.

What did grace do with David? Oh, how God loved David! He loved David and David loved God. You can feel it when you read Psalms. David quit praying one night. He was supposed to be going out to war. It was the time of the year that the kings go to war and he didn't do it. He said I'll take mine ease, and eat, drink, and be merry. I'll let Joab do it for me. "His grace is sufficient". He walked out from under grace that night. He looked across his roof and he saw a beautiful woman bathing. She was the wife of one of his best friends. Don't tell me we're not capable of anything, including murder, if we're out from under grace. Don't tell me that you're in some sort of sanctified state that you can't backslide. Don't tell me that. If you have a brag or a boast, then you don't have grace. I think David might have boasted in his heart that night, his grace is sufficient. I've done my sacrifices. I've done my alms and my prayers. I'm paid up in my debts and my vows.

Remember the harlot mentioned in the fifth chapter and other chapters of Proverbs? Come up, I've done made my sacrifices, my bed is anointed. My husband is away on a far journey and I don't know when he'll get back. Let's take our fill of love. The harlot had paid her vows, but she was out of grace.

David looked across there and saw Bathsheba. He sent for her. He had plenty of time to think before she got there. Don't you think the Spirit of the Lord was dealing with him? Grace was talking to him. He said you shouldn't do this. This belongs to a valiant man, your best friend. He defended you. He said, no, I want her for myself. He took her and lay with her that night. She became pregnant. David had her husband murdered. The child was born. Nathan told David, this child has got to die. Can you imagine what kind of man that child would have grown into if he had lived...a man conceived by a backslid man who knew grace and was out from under it? That's the same thing the Antichrist will come from.

There is something about grace that I don't understand. It's amazing to me. David wept and he wailed and he cried for a week about this thing. The child died anyway. Think about your child dying. Think about the fact that he conceived a child just to die. The child had no other purpose but to be born and to die. No hope because of a man's sin...out of grace. In Psalm 51 he said "...take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;" Because God, I'm working a salvation now that's the most miserable thing I ever did. Look what grace did. He cried. He wept. He wailed. Whoever recorded it...it's so awesome. God said I'm not going to leave that out. I'm going to write that down. He did so we'd learn how to pray through in Psalm 51. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit. Every time you are broken grace comes in and patches you up. I don't know why. The devil doesn't know either, and there is nothing he can do against it.

What did God do? David was already stuck in the situation. What was he gonna do now? He killed a man and he's got a wife. He's already done it. God said by grace he'd give him Solomon by Bathsheba. The devil would have destroyed David, but God turned it on the devil and gave him Solomon. He is the one through whom Christ's throne came. What did grace do? What did grace do? Thank God for his grace. God could have destroyed her and him and the whole kingdom and started something else. But he chose to salvage a backslid man. He did it with you and he did it with me. He didn't have to. Lay down you sin so you can have grace again.

Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, was born after the dumbest act we ever heard of. That same grace of God is working today. It's the same one that broke that man, and that drew you to an altar, raised you out of a sick bed, and kept the judgment of God from cracking your skull when you shot off your mouth that you were something in God.

What about barren Hannah? She was mocked by her adversary. She was number two wife. Some of you are so aggravated at your husbands! What if you had to share him? Worse than that, what if she was all the time bearing babies and you were nothing? Some of you complain too much; husbands, the same. She was barren. She went to church one day and the preacher accused her of being drunk because she was seeking God. That's how out of grace the priesthood had gotten. Eli was SO backslid. He was as fat as a pig and full of the flesh, but he was still high priest and he was able to grant the petition she gave. She said, Lord, if you'll give me just one man child, I'll give him back to you.

Just to be used of God! Some people don't want to be used of God at all unless it is something great and fantastic. I ain't cleanin' the toilet, but I'll sure preach from a pulpit. Let me tell you something. It's the grace of God that gives you the strength to clean at all. Some people are doing a better job cleaning the toilet than others are preaching. Your reward will be great in heaven, because you did your job right.

God gave her Samuel. Samuel knew about God when he was just a little boy, long before he was 12 years old, like the common Israelite did. Some of you folks don't even tell your children about God till they're 18 and then let them decide for themselves. By that time, they've already decided. Do you decide what language they're to speak or do you let them decide that after they're 18? No, you teach them English from the beginning. Don't you? You need to start teaching them about God before that. Let the first words they say be JESUS instead of Da Da.

What about Leah? What did grace do for Leah? Do you remember Leah "the hated one"? God saw that Rachel was loved and Leah was hated. You think you got trouble? You say you've got love lost? Some of you don't want to wait on a mate? She had one and couldn't get out of it. What did grace do for her? Grace made it where she had so many children, she had half the group for Jacob by herself, not counting the handmaidens. She also had one particular child, later on, that would bring up Christ. His name was Judah.

What about Rachel, the arrogant one, the beautiful one and she knew it? She went years with anger and malice in her heart. She said I'm the one he loves. I'm the one he comes to most. I'm the one he sleeps with most often. I'm the one he stays with. I'm the one he really wanted anyway. I'm the one he worked for. I have nothing. I am barren. She gets on to Jacob and...some of you are chewing on the wrong source. He said, am I God? Grace came along and got a hold of Rachel. He said, now that I've got your attention, that beauty doesn't bring the babes...or bring life, I'll allow you one. You know who that was? Joseph. The one that set the captives free, that gave them liberty. In all of Egypt he was second only to Pharaoh. Grace did that through Rachel. She was buried in a place later called Bethlehem, where another was born thousands of years later. She died giving birth to Benjamin. They had the tribe of Benjamin whittled down so small in Judges we find out he was nearly destroyed. The grace of God still remembered Rachel. They said, lest Benjamin be destroyed, we'll stop from destroying.

The grace of God remembered the covenant that he made with Noah. I saw a rainbow the other day and there were no clouds to produce it. I saw one on the fourth of July that was a triple one. Two of them were complete. Grace keeps us from being destroyed in the United States of America when we have slaughtered by abortion, enough children to populate New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Houston, for every man, woman, boy, and girl that lives in them.

Grace keeps the tie rod in one piece in your car, whether it is new or not. I've heard of bearings freezing up solid on brand new vehicles. We cannot get arrogant or boastful, because if we do, we lose grace and we're already backslid. Just think about where you were before grace came. When you start surpassing grace, you're back where you were.

What did grace do for Paul? That man took Christians to jail. You think some people persecute you? Have you prayed for them like the church did for Paul in that day? Grace made the difference on the road to Damascus. It had a choice to kill him or change him. God chose just to blind him and see what he thought about that. Paul was running blind already. Some people today are. God said you're going to be blind. Paul didn't take long to pray through. He said, "Who art thou, Lord?" Did you notice he called him Lord? He said "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Paul was attacking grace and he didn't even know it. Some of US have attacked grace time and time again, saying, What is this thing? It's making me uncomfortable. I don't like it. Get away from me. You better pray!

Grace raised Lazarus even though nobody believed. Jesus performed a miracle when nobody else would believe. He even cried about it. Unbelief was so bad he said I can't find a miracle in this assembly. Even the one that set at his feet and learned of him wouldn't believe. "Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." John 11:41-42. Beloved, God always hears. That's the grace of God.

Gideon was a coward. Some of us are cowards. He was threshing wheat by a winepress. You say, well, I'm threshing wheat. But you are hid so nobody will see you threshing it. I'm doing great things for God. But you can't prove it by signs following. Grace sent him an angel with the anointing of God so strong that he could have killed him on the spot, just because he was defiled. The anointing of the Lord comes upon defiled people many times just to get them to turn loose of their degradation and be cleansed. I didn't say enter and dwell, but he touches them and deals with them. Jesus touched the leper and healed him. Grace said "...I will; be thou clean..." He's doing it with us today. A lot of us are lepers.

Grace did all these things. Grace walked in the fire with the three Hebrew children. The king who was so arrogant and cocky a few minutes before, suddenly decreed that it was the Son of God in there with those men. Grace burned everything off of them that needed to be burned off...all their bondages. God didn't let the rest of them that was godly be burned up. A lot of us are worried about God taking away too much. He won't take away a bit more than what you need taken away.

Grace shut the lion's mouths for Daniel. Daniel could have been a martyr for God. God said I don't think so today. I want to use you for prayer. A lot of people are ready to be martyred for God. Their work is about finished. Who knows if they were to get in gear and push a little harder that the Lord wouldn't extend their life? He did that for a king once. A lot of people are getting sick of diseases and they are dying out of time. "...many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." That means die ahead of time. It's not God's will. Well, why does he let it happen? Because you have gotten out from under grace and God doesn't work in anything but grace. The final end of a man that is running out of grace is that he doesn't receive it any more. I won't accept it. I won't have it. I won't be criticized. I won't be told what to do. One that sticks out in the New Testament maybe more than anyone else is Peter. Grace picked that man up on raging waves of the sea one time. Grace said, Come, step out of the boat into the water, even though it is raging. I'll sustain you. Grace even went so far that when he turned his eyes on the storm, Jesus reached over and got a hold of him.

John 1:17, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." I know that we'll all be operating in grace from beginning to end, but some of us are running out from under it. We're supposed to be growing in it. Instead, we're tapping our last resources. We're on the last stick. We're gonna burn it, and we're gonna cook that last cake, and we're gonna die. But, grace sent an old prophet of God to her, who was famous to the whole wide world. He sent him to a little nobody woman. We don't even know her name. She was a widow. He said, I'm moving in. The temple of Israel didn't have the anointing that old man had. She had God's man of faith and power living in the next room. When that grace appeared to her, her meal barrel never wasted and the oil never failed.

The humble and contrite heart God will not despise. That's what it's going to take for us to get in the place we've been called to go. We've been called to go some place special, but let's not get cocky one time and think we earned it. As grace is given to us we can get in the position with God where we can approach to these things.

Don't run out of grace; don't fall out of grace; let's grow in it. It could be that God brought you here for this last hour for an extremely awesome purpose. Would it not be a shame of shames to throw it away if you had it right in your hands!

Some of the Scripture references: Psalm 51, Proverbs 29:1, 1 Corinthians 13, Genesis 2:7, Genesis 3:15, Genesis 6:6, 2 Corinthians 12:7, Romans 5:20, John 14:2, 2 Peter 3:18, Ephesians 2:8-9, Matthew 11:28, James 4:6, Jeremiah 33:3, Luke 9:62, Acts 9:5, Acts 9:4-5, John 11:41-42, 1 Corinthians 11:30, Isaiah 57:15, Psalm 51:17.

E-mail the pastor at

 livinghope@hughes.net

© Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.