This program is brought to you in part by the partners and friends of Creflo dollar ministries coming up next on changing your world, believe Jesus and you’ll be saved.
And if your house believes Jesus, they’ll be saved. Believe Jesus. That’s it. Believe Jesus. That’s it.
You don’t have to get cleaned up. You don’t have to get none of that. He’ll do that.
He will do that. He don’t want you doing that.
If you could have cleaned yourself up, you’d have been cleaned it.
It, that’s why you need Jesus to clean you up.
Glory to God and He will do the work in you. You keep trying to do the work.
You can’t do. He will do the work in you, honey, if you look at a mirror one day and all of a sudden you ain’t cussing no more.
God gets the credit for doing that work in you calling all world changers and those who have been changed by the message of grace.
It’s homecoming time. We’ve been on the road spreading the gospel and now it’s time to bring it home.
That’s right. Grace. Life 2 23 homecoming is upon us and will be an experience like no other.
We are inviting the entire world Changers nation home July 13th through the 15th at the World Dome in College Park, Georgia.
Welcome home. World Changers. This is your world.
So is vow get a better place.
Every is the, oh you the wind breaks, pick me up, changed.
Second Peter chapter 3 15 and chapter three, they’re talking about the coming of the Lord and they’re getting ready.
They’re talking about all the things that are happening as a result of becoming of the Lord.
And I tell you, we’re right there. Jesus is absolutely coming back again. Amen.
And he picks up in verse uh 15 and he says, and remember our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.
Somebody says, how come he hadn’t come yet?
Because of our Lord’s patience is giving people time to be saved.
Well, you know, they say that he was coming back 30 years ago because of the Lord’s patience.
It’s giving people time to be saved. He said this is what our beloved brother.
Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him, speaking of these things in all of his letters, some of his comments.
Uh he, he says here in Peter, Peter says some of his comments uh are hard to understand because Paul is now preaching the grace of Jesus.
Christ says some of his comments are hard to understand and those who are ignorant and unstable have already twisted his letters to mean something quite different just as they do with other parts of the scripture and this will result in their destruction.
Next verse. He says, you already know these things, dear friends. So be on guard.
Some might say, I’m on guard, be on guard.
Then you will not be carried away by the eras of these wicked people and lose your own, secure footing, it’s powerful, rather you must grow in grace.
So now he says, he said, while all of this is going on, I want you to be concerned about this thing right here, I want you to be concerned about growing in grace.
This is uh the day of the Lord’s coming that they’re talking about.
And in these days as they were preparing for the Lord’s coming, he is saying, grow in grace.
Now we can’t ignore that right now. We ought to be growing in grace.
And as a, as a, as a spiritual father, as a pastor AAA as a, as a leader in the body of Christ.
One of the things I’m like, dude, we gotta talk about how the most frustrating things I’ve ever experienced in life is when I see an instruction in the word and I don’t know practically how to begin to initiate these things or even to bring my thinking in line with the how to do that.
So until the day of the Lord comes, the instruction here is to grow in grace and not only that, but he gives us a little key here and in the knowledge of the Lord, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
So he says right now, if you’re gonna grow in grace, you cannot omit growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, and you know, when you preach the gospel of grace, it’s, it’s, it’s Jesus all the way, man, when you preach growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And uh when I saw this, uh I, I understand that growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ gives you the capacity or what it takes to grow in grace.
Growing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ gives you the capacity or it gives you what it takes to grow in grace.
In other words, that’s a good place to start.
I wanna grow in the knowledge, not just knowing about him, but eventually uh knowing him that growing in knowledge and then growing in intimacy and then growing in grace.
I I I I it happens simultaneously as you grow in the knowledge and the knowing of Jesus Christ.
You’re gonna find yourself growing in grace.
John chapter one, let me show you this John chapter one verse 14 and 17 in the King James.
Uh you’re familiar with this, this is where we started our grace teachings from uh Saint John one.
He says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we be hailed his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.
He is saying here, Jesus, the one who, who, who was made flesh, Jesus was full of grace and truth.
Now, here’s what he’s saying, Jesus is full of grace and grace is the truth.
Jesus is full of grace, which is the truth, which is the truth.
Jesus says, I am the way and the what and the truth and the life.
And so now you cannot separate Jesus from grace, which is the truth.
When I, when I say Jesus, you say grace.
When I say grace, you say Jesus and you, you got to understand that that you can’t separate uh Jesus from what makes Jesus who Jesus is.
Amen. And so verse 17 says this for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
So I understand that as we grow in the knowledge of grace, as we grow in the knowledge of the truth and grace is the truth.
We grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, you learn more about Jesus.
When you learn more about grace, which is the truth, you grow in those things, you’re going to be growing in grace because you can’t separate grace from Jesus Christ.
Now let’s move to this point right here. This grace is not based on our good behavior.
The grace disgrace is not based on our good behavior or a lack of, of, of good behavior.
Please understand what I’m saying. Your good behavior and, and so many church people and, and Christians in the body of Christ just don’t get this grace is not based on our good behavior.
So you trying to be good to grow in grace. That’s, that’s not, that’s, that, that, that’s not happening.
It’s not, it’s not based on your good behavior and it’s not based on AAA lack of good behavior.
Now, that’s not a license to go and have bad behavior.
But that’s just showing you that, that this grace is not based on your good behavior or your lack of good behavior.
It is based on God’s amazing goodness and his unconditional love for us.
This grace is based on just God being good.
This grace is based on His, his, his love for us, his, his, his, his, his infinite love for us.
He loves us and he’s good.
And now he makes grace available to you, not because you deserved it, not because you earned it, not because you have great behavior, not because you’re just an awesome churchgoer.
He did it because he’s good and he loves you.
And remember our definition of grace for this series, this year, grace is the unmerited abounding provision of the unrestrained operation of God’s infinite love that comes through Jesus Christ on behalf of man, especially for those who depend on him.
This grace is unmerited love. But it’s deeper than that. Grace is unmerited. Yes, that means it’s unearned.
You can’t work for it. You can’t deserve it. When you find this grace operating in your life.
It is because of God’s goodness that it is operating in your life, not because of your great behavior or anything that you could have possibly done to be able to deserve it.
I mean, right now, that’s just enough for me to shout because it’s like, please stop trying to convince yourself that you bring something to the table.
You didn’t bring anything to the table.
The goodness of the Lord was at the table when you got there and the love of God was at the table.
When you got there, this grace is unmerited and notice about this.
It’s, it’s, it’s a, a bounding. That word abound means increase. It’s a, it’s, it’s a bounding, it’s increasing.
It, it’s increasing. Provision, grace is provision for what you can’t do.
Yeah, I feel uh Pentecostal this morning.
It is, it is provision for what you can’t do. It is provision for what you can’t get.
It is provision for what you can’t make happen. And it’s constantly increasing grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.
It’s increasing provision of the unrestrained operation of God’s infinite love.
This grace is, is a part of the operation of God’s infinite love.
This grace that’s coming on you that you don’t deserve that you didn’t earn because of good behavior.
Or lack of it. It came because this is a part of the unrestrained operation of God’s infinite love.
There’s an operation of God’s infinite love that has been released upon you right now.
It has been released upon the world right now.
And anybody that will just surrender and say, I surrender to your love, I surrender to your grace.
I surrender to Jesus. It’s an unrestrained operation of God’s infinite love and it operates through Jesus Christ.
Notice there again, there’s a connection again, the person of Jesus and this amazing grace and it operates on behalf of those who, especially those who, who, who depend on God.
And our, our deal is somebody say, what do I do start?
Depending on God, depend on God, like you depend on yourself, depend on God, depend on God.
Look at the things you’re dependent on and just transpose or exchange places with depending on that thing and start depending on God.
Amen. That’s so so, so, so powerful. Now, let’s get started here this morning.
Ephesians chapter two verses one through 10.
Now, remember we’re, we’re, we’re on the hunt for the practicality of growing in grace, knowing what I need to begin to, to, to get involved in, in order to see grace is changing my mind and challenging my thinking and understanding what I have to do and all you’re getting get understanding.
This is not a shout, shout sermon. This is not a cartwheel sermon.
This is not me saying, oh, I’m gonna tear that house up. Now, this is about you being built up.
You being edified. The entire purpose for your church attendance is to be edified.
So when you walk out of here, I’ve got to make sure that I’ve done my job as a ministry gift.
I am, I am are are we are gifts to you, our ministry staff, we are gifts to you and our job is to edify you to build you up so you can walk out of here with something that you didn’t really have before you came in here.
Alright. Verse one.
He says, once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
So before you got born again, we were dead in trespasses and sins. Amen.
Now verse two, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world.
He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
All of us used to live that way following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature by our very nature.
We were subject to God’s anger just like everyone else.
But God everybody say but God but God is so rich and mercy.
In other words, mercy is the, the, the the bad you deserve.
You don’t get God is rich and making sure you don’t get what you deserve.
But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much.
Verse five that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead, it is only by God’s grace that you have been saved.
Bye. It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved.
Don’t forget that you’re not saved of your works less any man should boast.
It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved.
Praise God for He raised us from the dead along with Christ.
So at the same time, he raised Christ from the dead. That, that that opportunity now has become ours.
We’ve been, we were raised from the dead and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Say this, I am united with Christ verse seven.
So God can point to us now notice why, why did God say this is mind boggling?
Why did God save us by His grace?
Why did God do stuff and why is he doing stuff for us that we didn’t earn?
We didn’t deserve, we didn’t work for, we didn’t qual we weren’t qualified to do it.
Why did he do it? So God so God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness towards us.
You know what I’m saying? I’m doing what I’m doing with you. So in the future.
I can point to you and say they didn’t do nothing to be here, but my grace allowed them interest right here.
God’s gonna be pointing to us as examples of His grace that’s gonna even be going on in eternity.
He said the wealth of His grace and kindness towards us as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ verse eight.
God saved you by His grace when you believed. So that’s what happens.
Somebody says what you gotta do to be, be saved.
Believe Jesus, believe Jesus and you’ll be saved and if your house believes Jesus, they’ll be saved. Believe Jesus.
That’s it. Believe Jesus, that’s it. You don’t have to get cleaned up.
You don’t have to get none of that. He’ll do that. He will do that.
He don’t want you doing that. If you could have cleaned yourself up, you’d have been cleaned it.
You do it. That’s why you need Jesus to clean you up.
Glory to God and He will do the work in you.
You keep trying to do the work you can’t do. He will do the work in you, honey.
If you look at a mirror one day and all of a sudden you ain’t cussing no more.
God gets the credit for doing that work in you and you can’t take credit for this.
It is a gift from God right now. What’s this?
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.
So none of us can boast about it.
You got to give God the glory about it and look at verse 10 for, we pay attention to this.
This is just man for we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us a new in Christ Jesus.
Why? So we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
I don’t know if you caught that.
He tells us why he created us a new so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
So God’s grace is not bestowed on us because of our good works, but it is bestowed on us to enable us to do the good works.
See, we thought God does stuff for us because of our good works.
Grace is not on us and bestowed upon us because of our good works.
He gave us grace so that we can be quite enabled or he gave us grace to equip us to do good works, don’t throw away good works.
He says good work should be by His grace, not by your effort.
And we keep trying to do good works and thinking that by doing the good works, grace will be bestowed upon us.
And this is important, a concern of what I’m going to. It’s not grace to do good.
Uh It’s grace to do good works. It’s not doing good works to get grace.
And you know what I’m saying? Lots of people are out to do good works.
You know, there are lots of folks have fed folks during, during the holiday season, praise God, they did good works and now they think they deserve something from God.
God, I’ve been good God. I fed the hungry God.
I quoted the naked, see they did that and expected something from God.
But what God wants you to do is go ahead and receive His grace and that will enable and equip you to do good works.
Let’s do good works. Bike race. It’s by grace.
Paul said I I am what I am by the grace of God.
He says I, I work harder than any of the disciples, but he does it by the grace of God.
You don’t see Paul working hard to deserve the grace of God, but it’s the grace on me and the grace on you that enables us to do good works.
Praise God. It’s the grace of God that’s on us. All right.
So here we go. What does it mean to grow in grace?
Let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s make that first base. What does it mean to grow in grace?
Alright, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m gonna put these in parts. Here’s the first part.
It isn’t something that you grow in overnight. It takes time.
It isn’t something that you grow overnight.
I wanna attack our, our understanding of things.
The first thing I want you to know is talk, growing grace, growing grace doesn’t take place overnight.
It’s a journey. Somebody say it’s a journey. It’s a journey.
So many, so many, so many times Christians, you know, think, well, you know saying it is actually doing it and now saying it is a part of the journey.
Ok? So it’s a it’s a journey growing in grace, it takes time and it’s a journey.
All right, put the next one up growing in grace starts in realizing what it means to receive it yourself.
So part of growing in grace is you realizing what it means to receive it yourself.
If we really understand what we have received, then it’ll be easier to give grace to others.
Do you understand what you’ve received?
That’s why I, I spent time in that introduction. Do you understand what you received?
Because once you understand what you received, then it becomes easier for you to give grace to others.
And the reason one of the reasons God gave us grace is so we can give it to somebody else.
But if you don’t understand what you’ve received, you’re probably not gonna be motivated to give it to somebody else.
But that’s the design here. I’m gonna be growing in grace as I give it to other people because I understand how important it is.
See, the thing I understand about grace is I’m nothing without Him. Every time I think Grace.
I’m thinking Jesus, I’m nothing without Jesus. I’m nothing without grace.
And so when I realize what it means for me to receive Jesus in my life, then I also realize how, how, how, how easy, how, how, how, how I need to begin to give it to other people or give them to other people.
You see why I have to go back to the person of Jesus to keep me in line because I don’t want you to think that grace is this magic pill that I’m passing around.
I’m talking about giving up, giving, giving up, giving Jesus to somebody.
I see how valuable it is for me to have Jesus in my life and what he’s done in my life.
Now, I want to make sure that somebody else receives what I have received.
Uh You got that one. Look at the next one.
Now this was a real big revelation to me and it makes, I don’t wanna say it makes sense, but it just, yeah, how does grace grow?
The highs and the lows in life? You know what?
You know what that is, right?
The, the, the, the good times, the highs and the lows in life when we are happy, when we’re hurt.
Mhm There are opportunities that God uses for us to grow in grace.
It’s you see, we are to see others as Jesus sees them and grace starts growing as we live.
It grows in the, in the high points of our lives.
It starts growing in the low points of our lives.
It, it grows in the good parts of our life.
It grows in the bad parts of our lives because something happens where you’re growing in grace when somebody hurt you, but your desires changed and you were able to forgive them and without that hurt you, rob of an opportunity for grace to grow.
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I like the way he teaches because he teaches so that you could understand.
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