How's everybody doing this? Thank you, worship team. Great. And Kurt, he is helping me out.
Oh, man. Help this morning. My throat is, Whitney gave me some spray. It was called like throat coat or something.
I appreciate it. It helps some. But I'm going to push through. It seems like it just comes and goes.
My wife's a teacher. So I'm pretty sure she just keeps getting it. Handing it off for kids and stuff. He's faithful.
Other than my body feeling sick, I feel fine. I'm excited I'm ready to go. The only announcement I can think of at the current moment is we have a lunch in after church. Yeah, right?
One person's happy. I love to eat, so I'm not going to forget that announcement. So right after church, we have a chili. I think we're having two different kinds of chili.
White chicken chili and regular chili. So you get to take your pick. And hopefully you stay and enjoy that. I took no parts in making it, so don't worry.
Thank you. I'm excited today. This was a challenge for me too. We're in a series called through.
How many have enjoyed the series so far? Has it been great? Yeah, God's bringing us through and to new understanding. Making a connection to everything comes through him.
Everything that we have. Everything that we'll need. All of that, it just all comes through him. This week, I was really wrestling with this topic because it's a challenging one.
We're going to talk about grace a little bit today. I know. I know. You don't have to say nothing.
I know. It's hard. We all have our different understandings of grace. And we hear about it so often in the church.
But I hope to bring a little bit more understanding to it that it's bigger than what we can wrap our brains around. Think, one person. Did you hear what I said? It's bigger than what we think we can wrap our heads around.
See what I've learned and what God's teaching me is that in humans, we like control. So if we can't understand it, we try to define it to what we can somewhat fit into to make us feel a little more comfortable. But the grace of God is so big. It goes really against everything that we've learned or what the world teaches.
I'm going to show you a little bit, because we like to define it to a certain point and limit it when it doesn't make sense to us. But the reality is that grace is something that's super powerful. It empowers us. Man, I'm excited.
And then the next part is going to be truth. We're going to talk about, which I'm excited about that. And everyone's like, truth. And then the third thing that we're going to talk about today if we get through all of it is going to be that they both work together.
You can't have one without the other. Because the scripture we're about to read says that, let's just read it. John 1, if you got your Bible today, turn to John. And I'm going to read two passages.
I'm going to read the NIV, then the message translation. It says, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came. Come on, help me out this morning, came. Jesus.
Shoo. For the law was given through Moses. So all the rules, all the things that were meant to try to the law, right? Do you all know what I'm talking about here?
The law that came through Moses. But the thing we like to talk about the most, grace and truth, came through Jesus Christ. Can somebody say, amen? Shoo.
Grace is a person, y'all. I'm going to read the message translation for you. And this is going to be 16 through 18. Starting in verse 16, it says, we all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics for Moses. And then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding. All this came through Jesus. Come on, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one of a con-God expression who exists at the very heart of the Father has made him plain as day. Shoo. Can we get an amen?
Wow. That's powerful, isn't it? So a little bit of what I want to do today. It's going to be a little bit different perspective of what you've heard of Grace.
Here's what I'm going to ask, Church. I'm going to ask that your hearts would be open, that you would want to come to know and understand of Grace that you would just open your mind, that it could be a little bit bigger than maybe what you've limited it to. And it's for all people. This verse is a turning point in scripture.
It contrasts the old covenant given through Moses with the new covenant brought by Jesus. Under the law, people were given rules to follow, but the rules could never reveal sin, not remove it. Grace and truth over came through Jesus offering not just a standard to live by, but the power to live transformed. Grace forgives the truth, grace forgives and truth frees.
And together they define the new way of life found in Christ. So we're going to talk about today. Grace and truth, the divine equation. Grace and truth are two words we've heard so many times in church, but maybe they're two familiar church.
Maybe they're two familiar. What if we've treated grace like a free pass or not enough of what it actually is? What if we treated truth like a heavy hammer? Uh oh.
Uh oh. Can I just ask real quick? Can we get a show of hands? I am sweating, but it's all right.
I'm not going to pass out, I promise. Has anybody in here abused grace? What about truth? Yeah.
What about have you used grace without truth? And truth without grace? Yeah, today we're going to talk about it a little bit. This, I really want to get this up cross today.
That grace and truth came through Jesus. They're not just abstract qualities of Jesus. They're how he lived, how he loved, and how he transformed the world. I want us to see this today because this is how we should be conducting our lives as believers.
And I think that grace and truth are such a crucial topic for us to understand as believers. And I think we learn them to an extent. But I believe this, and I don't want to go off track with this one, I believe that we get ourselves to a point. And we're growing to a point, but then there's certain things that just rip the e-brake and put and like stop us.
In the middle of our growth. Because we don't understand them. And we won't allow ourselves to understand or get to the point of understanding. We'll just stop it and this is what it is.
And I think that the grace will help us. If we start to open ourselves up to it, what it's going to do is it's going to take us. Yes, it free. Yes, it does all these things.
But then it empowers us to move forward, to live. The life God called us to live. All right. You all right helping me out.
That was an Eagles fan. You all do want to just take a minute and say go Eagles? Go Eagles. It's OK.
It's OK. Father forgive her for she does not know what she does. I have to make a confession, y'all. So my wife's brothers are huge Philly fans.
And they cuddle me because I'm a Giants fan. But you know what? They opened up an opportunity. They said that I'm welcome.
They welcomed me into the family. And then they said you're welcome to be an Eagles fan now. And you know what? I think I might just take them up on that offer.
But it was. They did tell me I have to wait till next year. So Seikwon Barkley's Eagles running back. He was a Giants.
I feel like I have a little bit of I can squeeze in through the gaps there. My man's saying, nope, you can't do it. It's all right. I'm voting bills all the way this year.
All right, let's get back to the track. So that's right. So here's an understanding on one of us to grab. Grace without truth is like a warm blanket with no direction.
So you got what you need, right? But you don't have no direction. And truth without grace is like a map with no road. Together they create life changing love.
If you think you have grace and truth figured out, you may be limiting yourself from experience the fullness of God. Let's open our hearts to a fresh perspective. So Father, thank you for today. As that our hearts to be open, thank you for your grace.
Thank you for your truth. Open our hearts today that we can receive you more. First point, grace through Jesus. We read in the scripture that it comes.
What series are we in? Y'all come on, wake up. Grace comes. Who?
There we go. So grace through Jesus. I like to call this mercy in motion. Because when we hear grace, we often think of forgiveness.
Anybody ever attached that to forgiveness? Like God's letting us off the hook for something, for our sins. But it's much more than just a safety net for failure, it's the power to live differently. It's not passive, it's active.
It's not an excuse to stay the same. It's the fuel for transformation. It's not an excuse to say the same. It's fuel for transformation.
Come on, he gives us the grace, but how many of us know that he don't just give it to us to stay where we are at. He gives it to us so it can fuel us to change us and transform us into the very thing that he's created us to be. Go to, well, you don't have to turn it. You can look up here.
Titus 2, 11 says this, 11 and 12, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. That's good news. One person said, yeah, that's good news. It teaches us to say, teaches us to say, to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-control upright and godly lives in this.
What's the present age? Oh, shoot, shoot. So right now, we can live. I want to read what the scripture says.
Self-control. You know I always pause there and like to really get on my wife there, right? I'll leave our alone today. It's not self-control.
It's self-control. Upright and godly lives in this present age, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation for all people. This is what the message translation says. God's readiness to give and forgive is now public.
Salvation is available for everyone. We're being shown how to turn our backs on godless, indulgent life and how to take on a god-filled, god-honoring life. This new life is starting right now. Say right now.
And it's wedding our appetite for the glorious day when our great god and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us, say free us, from a dark rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us people he can be proud of, energetic, and goodness. Come on, somebody. Are you kidding me?
So say this with me. Grace doesn't just pick you up. It powers you forward. It's not just mercy.
It's purpose. It's not just mercy. It's purpose. See, I hope church today, what we begin to see is maybe we've left out big, big chunks of grace due to not understanding it.
And I'm going to say something that's going to be a little controversial because I do believe to an extent it is a free pass. Don't beat me up because, yeah, scripture says throughout so many things, but here's what I want to ultimately get to understand here. That grace is something that in reality we didn't deserve. Amen.
Are you following me? I want to get to a basic kind of understanding here. That's something that it's like unmerited favor, right? We know the definition.
I don't want to go over the definition of what we know. What I want to just kind of get to, here's the thing everyone says, well, God can do what he wants to do. Right? Why do we limit it sometimes then because it's uncomfortable for us?
Like he can do what he wants to do, right? And grace is unmerited favor, meaning it kind of goes against everything that we believe or everything that we kind of know worldly and how the world works. Right? So why do we try to limit our understanding of it?
Shouldn't it be a constant open heart growing, learning? Like, that's what's so awesome about it. I don't understand. If you want me to be honest, I can't fully understand why I have the opportunity.
Like why? Anybody else in here ever felt like that? With how you've lived your life? Why do I keep getting extended grace?
You know, I think this is what challenges, but that's also what empowers me to believe. That's how good God is. That no matter what, it came through him. It's his nature.
It's who he is. I really think he wants those church to stop limiting who he is and the things that came through him that he brought to reveal the nature of the Father, that was his purpose, to give grace to, I know I was undeserving. I'll talk to myself today if nobody else wants to be honest. I know I was undeserving.
But guess what? Didn't stop him. Didn't stop him one bit. I'll even go as far as I know other people are undeserving.
Guess what? Didn't stop him. I just believe church that we kind of limit ourselves and we begin to limit God when we start to get to a place where we think we're growing and we start to want to, like maybe I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but how could I ultimately define something that didn't come through me? I'll stop.
I don't know if we're ready for that. Grace doesn't just forgive it teaches. It instructs us, moulds us, empowers us to live in a way we never could on our own. It empowers us to live in a way we never could on our own.
Grace isn't just God overlooking failures, it's God equipping us to rise above. Is that not the God we serve? Like he didn't just come and pay for our sins, but he gave us purpose and he gave us life. Amen?
Grace is a free pass until it's not. Grace is freely given by God at a first glance. It might seem like a free pass to live however we want, but that's not the full picture. Grace isn't just about wiping the slate clean, it's about transforming how we live.
Grace is free in the sense that it's unearned, we can't work for it or prove ourselves worthy of it, but while Grace doesn't cost us anything to receive, it calls us into a life of transformation. True Grace doesn't just forgive, it reshapes our desires, our actions, and our purpose to align with God's will. True Grace calls us higher and deeper empowering us to live as God intended. Is that true in anybody's life?
Has anybody experienced that? You received something that you know you didn't deserve, and it did something for you that made you be like, well, I have now a new opportunity, right? Amen. See, church, we need to keep this at the forefront of our minds because we are all challenged with things.
Well, maybe you guys aren't challenged with things all day, right? Does anybody feel like, I don't, I'm not adding up to this. I failed. I'm not good enough.
I'm not, I'll preach to you if you're the only one who's gonna raise your hand. You feel like there's times you're doing good, but then there's time, oh man, that's up. How, how, I want you to know there's enough grace for you. Like listen, there's more than enough.
You know why I know? Because it came through Jesus. If it came any other way, it would run out. But guess what, it came through Jesus.
So there's more than enough to go around to all people. If that doesn't make you excited, I don't know what's going to, church. We're talking about something that came through Jesus. We needed a savior.
We got one. And then we got everything that came along with him to help us stand up where we were at and walk forward. We're sin about, grace about more. We don't like that verse.
And I don't know why we don't like it, right? Here, I wanna read this next scripture, because this really, this kinda changes it for me. This isn't Luke. This is, remember the people in the cross beside Jesus?
Yeah, he says, Jesus answered him, truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise. One woo, can I ask a question? Does this not make anyone think? This man had no time or opportunity to do anything.
Why, he's hanging on the cross, that's why. Had no, can't move, he's bound. Could not physically do anything. And guess what was extended towards him?
Shoo, come on. If this does not open your hearts and your minds to grace is so much bigger. See, and this is why I'm saying that like, those scriptures were sin about, grace is bound much more. We read stuff like this that.
We just live in a world that everything's earned. It's gotta be proven, it's gotta be all of this. You know what I mean? You gotta be together before you can start to earn and receive things.
That's not what our word tells us. There's things that challenge us in and growin' and all that. And I'm not talking about that, like I said, I wanna open our minds today that grace is bigger than what we've limited it to, to our understanding. But when we look and read stuff like this about Jesus, extending grace to someone who's done nothing, but simply had a conversation.
And that was enough. Is that enough for us to extend grace to others? Could we be limited in our understanding of grace? Cause it goes beyond what we're comfortable with, or what makes sense to us.
See, it says, today you will be with me in paradise. This moment shows us grace is not transactional. It's transformational. It's not about what we've done, but about who God is.
Everything about who he is. See, we can't get that confused. And so I said, it gets challenged in, I believe we start to drop truth, and we'll try to have grace without truth, it just don't work. You know, we'll have, you're trying to have truth without grace, and it just don't, it don't do what it does when Jesus has it in his hands.
Does that make sense? Like they have to go together. And we wonder why we're challenged with understanding grace through grace. Grace comes through Jesus.
And I just have to ask some people, this is just a question. Are you using grace to stay the same, or is the power to be transformed? That's a question I'd like to ask today. Because that's, grace should empower you.
There is grace. Like when people are like, what about grace? There's, I have it to go around. What are you doing with it?
It's there. What are you now doing? Grace has been given. It came through Jesus like we just read.
I said, what are you doing with it? I'm gonna talk a little bit about grace that makes us uncomfortable. We talked about it not just being an abstract idea, it's a person. It didn't come through you, so you can't fully define it.
Grace came into the world through Jesus. Grace came into the world through Jesus Christ. When we look at his life, we don't just see grace in action, we see grace lived out. Everything Jesus did, healing the sick, forgiving centers, welcoming outcasts, was the living embodiment of grace.
This makes grace both deeply personal and profoundly challenging. See, it takes a willingness to really want and understand Jesus to fully grasp and understand these topics that came through him. See, when we start talking about a higher view of grace, it makes people uncomfortable because it challenges the limits it placed on it. True grace came through Jesus and his life perfectly defines that grace.
It's hard for us to fully accept or understand because it's different from how the world works. We're used to earning rewards, proving ourselves and controlling outcomes. Grace turns all of that upside down. Will you allow your definition to be challenged?
Will you stop trying to define grace with the little bit of life you've lived and what you begin to understand of it? Will you stop limiting it based on what you've experienced or lived through and start seeing it through the lens of Christ for what it truly is? We have so many different examples that we see and we try to, like I said, we want to grab it and put it up, but how, like I said, if it didn't come through you, how can you define it? It would be like defining the ocean with a single drop of water.
Like, we say these things about how big grace is, but yet somehow we compact it down into our little definition to make us feel better. But I would say that's actually the thing that keeps us from not growing because his is so big, it challenges us and it gives us what we need to move forward. Grace isn't just about where you start being forgiven. It's about where you go, living transformed.
Are you treating grace as a lifeline to rescue you from drowning or as the strength to walk on water? Because I'm gonna tell you something, grace came through Jesus. And guess what? The people around him lived it with him.
I don't know if you're hearing me, church. Grace came through Jesus, right? And you have the living expression of grace throughout scripture that we read about and we see and what it does. You got 12 guys who come from different backgrounds of Jesus' pick, all that they were all over the place, a lot of them, right?
But yet there was grace lived out in front of them for them to continue doing what they were doing. To the point that one even walked on water. Yeah, we wanna focus that he fell, I get it. But guess what?
Even in that, because I'll talk about it, he fell, took his eyes off of Jesus and fell, right? I got a question for you. What did Grace do? Picked him back up.
Come on, maybe you've limited grace this morning. I got so much to talk about, I gotta keep going. Second point, truth through Jesus, a foundation not offense. Most people, well I don't wanna say most people.
I'll just say this, many think of truth as restrictive. As though it's a set of rigid rules meant to box us in. But truth isn't about keeping us confined. It's about setting us free.
John 832 says this, then you will know the, when I ask this side, you will know the, and the truth will. And the truth will. Come on then. So church, help me out.
Why does the truth end up being a shackle? I know what you're gonna say, but I'm asking why in our life, or is it not lived out freely? Today was gonna be a little challenging, but I wanna help us today. I really wanna help us.
I wanna understand that what came through Moses in the law, back to our scripture, and what came through Jesus, grace and truth. See, the law, the law would confine you, right? Amen. So therefore the truth should, and that's what Jesus does.
But so often, it ends up becoming a shackle for some reason. But it's supposed to be a compass. It doesn't hold you back, it points you forward. What kind of freedom is Jesus speaking of?
Truth frees us from illusion. It exposes the lies we've believed about God, ourselves, and the world. Truth frees us from bondage. Lies keep us enslaved, but truth breaks change.
All right, no one's excited yet. Do I have anybody in here that got broken, a chain off of your life. You know what, that's not gonna work for me. These golf claps aren't gonna work for me.
Has God broken a chain off of your life? Somebody, come on. My goodness gracious, this is what I'm talking about. We can't even get excited in church about truth, right?
It says this should be free. But it's got some people, oh God, God radically saved my life. That's a, come on somebody, that's something free in that. Come on, truth frees us to live fully.
It aligns us with God's design and purpose, allowing us to thrive. Church, I'm gonna see people thrive. I think God's just bringing me into a season and why the focus is on through. Because I don't know about you, but I believe in everything that I read about.
I believe that much in my God. That, like I don't wanna ever limit who I think he is. I have a, I'm in school, and I think I told the home's this, but I have this class is a variety of different people in it. And this ladies in here, she was in ministry for 40 plus years, her and her husband.
And we were asked to say like, why are you here? Basically, just give a little, and it gets to her and she's pastored for 40 years. They've been all over the place. Youth, ministry, senior pastors, missions, everything, 40 years, and it gets to her and she says, just more of God.
And that like, I don't know what that does for you, but for me, that blows my mind. Because here's somebody who's older, no offense, not saying old age is bad. I'm just saying, someone who's older been in this thing for a while in a different capacity, still can sit there and say, I want more. It lets me know there's so much more, I've not even scratched the surface of, that God is so bigger and I don't want to limit him in any capacity thinking I know how big his love is, how wide grace is.
Like any of these things, it's his nature. I believe we're gonna be learning about them the rest of our lives. And what help us not limit ourselves to us thinking based off of what we've experienced in our lives that we think we now have an understanding what the grace and truth of God look like. Because I think he wants to continue to bring us into it more and more and more because it's so big.
John 17, 17 says this, sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. Jesus doesn't just speak truth, he is truth. To know Jesus is to know the reality that God intended. I said there's gonna be some challenging things we can talk about.
Challenge to religious thinking. Okay, I had to get it out there. You see how I threw it out there? I was gonna see if I was gonna get some kickback.
See religious systems often treat truth like a weapon. Used, well, you don't need to do that. Used to condemn, criticize and control. But Jesus doesn't use truth to crush people.
He speaks truth to free them. Shoo, have you weaponized truth, church? Jesus used truth to free, not fight. Are we limiting our understanding of truth and who it is based off of experience past hurt?
What did or didn't happen? Who somebody else said it wasn't? This one hit me deep guys because it hurts my heart to see when it's used to condemn, to criticize and to control. Because that wasn't at all what it was intended for.
I want you to think about the interaction with the woman at the well. Jesus spoke the hard truth about her life, but not to shame her. He did it to show her the living water she truly needed. The truth wasn't the end of the conversation it was the beginning of her transformation.
Say this with me, truth doesn't trap you, it transforms you. Truth isn't a burden, it's a gift. It's not about controlling you, it's about freeing you. Are you avoiding truth because you see it as a fence?
Or are you embracing it as a foundation to build your own life? It's freeing guys, it should be freeing. If it's not freeing, I ask that you would ask God to search your heart, to reveal to you why it's not freeing you, why you're not living a free life. And I'm not here telling people they're not, I'm saying if you're feeling trapped, it's not meant to trap you.
You're not meant to sit under all these rules and try to live life a certain way. You're trusting that what's been done for you is the way, I'm the truth, the way, the life. Why don't we start trusting that? Here's what I believe people are doing, and this is what God showed me.
I was gonna bring my dog cage, but that was not a good idea because then he would have been roaming the house and we would have had to found him another home when we got home. But that's what we're doing with truth, we're limiting it. And we think that we're actually doing the right thing, we're trapping it. But it's not meant to be trapped, it's meant to be free.
It's meant to lead your life to guide you. It's not to trap you. And that's what we gotta stop doing to other people with it. It's to be free, it's to set people free.
Doesn't trap you, it transforms you. It's a compass, it's not a cage, church. Compass doesn't restrict you, it gives you directions. Come on, without it, and it being trapped, you wander aimlessly.
Truth shows you where to go and how to live. My last point, I'm gonna get through. Grace and truth together, the power of balance. Grace without truth leads to compromise.
If we embrace grace, but ignore truth, we lose our grounding. We might start to think, God loves me so I can live however I want. I'm gonna get low on this one. I got pretty good in my house.
There's a time I was living with my wife. The response, I timed it down perfectly. I'd say something, and I knew a chunk of it was coming in like three seconds. So as soon as it came out on the mouth, I'm like one, two, three.
Great pass me every time. So I'm gonna get low when I say this. God loves me, but God loves me so I can live however I want. Grace without truth becomes empty.
It feels good, but doesn't challenge us or change us. Truth without grace leads to condemnation. On the other hand, if we embrace truth, but forget grace, we become rigid and judgmental. Come on now, can we be honest with ourselves?
Anybody fell into this? Come on now, it's easy. It's easy when you got one, but you forget the other. Not trapping me.
Truth without grace becomes a weapon that wounds rather than heals. It's like giving someone a map but refusing to help them when they're lost. Don't shoot the messenger. Just on a mission today to try to help us.
I'm gonna read John chapter eight, one through 11. It's gonna be the message translation. Jesus went across to Mount Olive, but he was soon back in the temple again. Swarms of people came to him.
Excuse me, he sat down and taught them. The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, teacher, this woman was caught red handed in the act of adultery. Moses in the law gives orders to so and such persons.
What do you say? What do you say? Maybe I'll help you all out. Maybe if you get caught in a situation, maybe just pause and say, what do you say, Lord?
All right, I'll keep going. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt.
They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, the sinless one among you go first. Throw the stone, bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another.
Beginning with the oldest, the woman was slapped alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her woman. Fellows do not, just don't ever start with woman. I wasn't gonna change it, but just don't.
Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you? No one, master. Neither do I said Jesus.
Go on your way from now and do not sin. See, this story shows the perfect balance of grace and truth. Grace, neither do I condemn you. True, go and sin no more.
Jesus didn't compromise truth to extend grace. And he didn't withhold grace to enforce truth. He showed her love and called her to change. Shoo.
I wanna just go back for a second. I don't know if you saw this. It said, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses in the law gives orders to stone such persons.
Huh? So Moses in the law gives order to stone such persons. Grace and truth came through Jesus. We got anybody in here still trying to bring the law of Moses on two people when now we live under a new covenant that came through Jesus.
And he brought grace and truth with him. Come on somebody, you don't have to amen. This is the word, this is true. This is what it says and what we're called to and what we get, why aren't we extending it to others?
Why are we not taking grace and truth together and desiring to know that we live our lives the way that Jesus lived? Why do we like to let one go when it's convenient for us? Because it's convenient. Here's what I would propose.
We've limited our understanding. It challenges us. But if we would learn from the one that it came through, we would really learn how to live our lives balanced. I don't know about you guys, but there's nothing that drives me crazier than unbalanced people.
Everyone's gonna, I didn't say I didn't love you. I said it, never think about everybody in here would agree with me. Amen? Right?
That's why we're all here, exactly. And this is how we learn, right? I'm gonna extend grace, but I'm not gonna compromise truth. Watch me walk down the steps.
So Jesus didn't compromise truth to extend grace, and he didn't withhold grace to enforce truth. He showed her love and called her to change. Church, could you imagine if we began to live our life like this? That if we began to handle situations with the balance of grace and truth, we began to understand so much why it's so important to have both of them present and how with one missing what it does.
Grace and truth are the wings that keep your faith sorn. Grace gives you the strength to rise and truth shows you where to soar. Walk in grace and truth. Think I put these up there, maybe I didn't, there we go.
Walk in grace and truth. Let grace empower you. Don't just try harder, trust deeper. Your try hard is not enough.
Your try has to turn into trust. Guys, listen, this is, come on, I wanna get this. I don't know about you, but I've tried to hold on. But the moment trust started is when things started to transform.
We've all tried and we have a, some people have a real try hard in them. But let's start building a real, like trust hard. I don't know what you wanna call it. I don't have a catchy saying for it, but what if we just remove try from our lives and we put trust there?
That we're gonna start living our life, trusting our father for who he is. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. A lot of people talk about in the last days, what days are we in? Okay, well who's speaking in the last days?
So who you gonna start trusting? Are you gonna, are you gonna because it's challenging and it kinda goes against what you know or maybe understand or what you're comfortable with? Are you gonna allow trust to lead your life, to lead you into these things for a greater understanding of what grace truly looks like? What truth truly is and not continue to allow yourself to be trapped or to limit it because you don't fully understand it.
I stopped defining things, they're trying to define things that we can't fully understand. And it's trust that God's gonna continue to reveal to us the greater measure of what it truly is. Align your life with truth, spend time in scripture, ask God to reveal any lies you believed about him or yourself. Let us truth reshape your thinking.
When truth shapes your heart, freedom shapes your life. Extend grace and truth to others. In your relationships, asking, am I leaning too far towards grace, avoiding hard conversations? Or truth, being harsh and critical?
Seek the balanced Jesus model. Love listens with grace and speaks with truth. Come on, come on. You guys go ahead and stand with me?
Grace and truth are Jesus. Grace invites us to come as we are, but truth calls us to lead different than we came. Together though they create a life that is free, empowered, and aligned with God's purpose.