I want to speak to you about four
verses of Scripture this morning.
The first one is found in 2 Corinthians
chapter 9 and verse 8, and so if
you have a Bible and you like to
turn there, and we'll just read it and
think upon it a little bit.
We've been doing a series of messages entitled,
A People of Action, thinking about the church
and how we are to be a people
who are actively engaged and working with the
Lord, and it struck me, you know, we
never really have identified or specified, why is
it that we can be a people of
action?
Now you know, some people think the church
is kind of a place of boredom, and
so you come and sing a few songs
and sit and listen to a message and
it's kind of dull, but actually as a
people of action, we are working together with
the living God.
And I want this morning, just in these
four verses, to encourage you to recognize that
there's something that Scripture says that ought to
give us every confidence as we are in
action with God.
Now there are all kinds of things we
could say, you could think about missions for
instance, and the fact that missionaries go to
strange places where there's no reason why they
should ever prosper, but they do, and I
think in these four verses we'll see why
they do.
And you and I work in difficult circumstances
sometimes, and we sometimes think, well how could
I ever have an impact on a place
like this?
But you know you can, and these four
verses I think will reinforce that.
And sometimes maybe you have a week like
I had this week, it was glorious to
be at that conference, but it was so
busy.
And you know, as I rolled into town
on Friday night, late late, and got to
my emails early early, I have four email
accounts, and the first one had 70 emails
in it.
So we sort of went on from there.
You know there's a tendency when you look
at those kind of things to say, this
is overwhelming.
How can anybody deal with all this stuff?
Now all this is supposed to help us
live life more streamlined, and have more time
for ourselves, and recreation, and all that stuff
to enjoy.
But actually you know most of the gadgets
just kind of keep us busier and busier,
and how can we possibly be a people
of action for God?
So let's look here in 2 Corinthians chapter
9 and verse 8.
Often people get nervous when the preacher says
we're going to go to 2 Corinthians 9,
because it talks a lot about money in
this chapter.
But please let me set your mind at
rest, we're not going to talk about money
this morning.
As you think about verse 8, let me
just read it here in my version.
It says, and God is able to make
all grace abound toward you, that you always
having all sufficiency in all things may have
an abundance for every good work.
You notice how many times it says all
in that verse?
Look there again, God is able to make
all grace.
Now I'm going to focus in these four
verses on this little statement, God is able.
Because there are times where in problems and
difficulties in life, we think this can never
be overcome.
And I want you just to zero in
on these three words, God is able.
There are times when people can't help, there
are times when counseling can't help, there are
times when money can't help, there are times
when human strength and wisdom cannot help.
But I want you just to see these
three little words, and you'll find them over
and over again.
I'm just taking four examples this God is
able.
And that's why we can be a people
of action.
Not because the strength is in us, or
there's anything great that you or I could
do, but God is absolutely and infinitely able.
And there's so much emphasis today on what
we can do, and so on, that often
we forget this, it's God who is able.
And so as we focus in on it
this morning, let's just take that little section
even.
People always say, as you get older, you
can't memorize.
Well, I don't care how the mind might
have slipped.
Keith's having problems remembering names, we'll have to
work on that with him.
How old are you, brother?
He's almost 17.
Okay, we'll take that under advisement.
But anybody can memorize God is able.
So, let's just look then at this verse
and walk through it together.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
So, here's a question for you this morning.
This is the interactive part of the sermon.
How much is left when you have it
all?
Al says, nothing, nothing's left.
You have it all, nothing is left.
So, He is able to make all grace.
How much is left?
Nothing.
He is able to make all grace abound
to you.
All grace, everything of His grace.
And some people, you know, hear the word
grace, and you might think, well, why do
I need it anyway?
I'm not sure I even want to be
gracious, or I don't want to be let
alone have grace.
But the Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8,
and 9 that you have to be saved
by grace.
You can't be saved by works.
You can't be saved by tradition.
You can't be saved because your parents were,
or your grandparents were.
You can only be saved by grace.
And it is through faith, says Ephesians 2,
8 and 9.
It's not by works that we have done.
It is by placing faith in Him who
is the gracious God, who in His grace
died on Calvary's cross to extend an invitation
to you and to me.
That's why we need grace.
Because without it, we are unsaved, and we'll
spend eternity lost in a place called hell
without hope and without Christ.
We must have His grace.
We must be saved by His grace.
So there is saving grace.
He is able to make that kind of
grace abound toward you.
And if you're here this morning, and you
need to be saved, or you wonder about
where will I spend eternity, let me just
read a couple of verses from Romans chapter
5 for us this morning.
And I'm thinking about Romans 5, 6 through
10.
For when we were still without strength in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one
die.
Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would
even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
Much more than having not been justified by
His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him.
For if when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God through the death of His
Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life.
There is saving grace.
And did you notice that we are delivered
from wrath?
Now, people often get on my case, and
they say, John, you know, God is a
God of love.
And that's true.
In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 8,
it says God is love.
And His love is perfect.
But my friends, so often people forget that
His wrath is also perfect.
And those who are not in and under
His love are under His wrath.
Don't take my word for it.
Check out what Jesus said in John chapter
3.
And after that great verse 16, He talks
about how those who are without Him are
lost and in darkness and have chosen to
be.
And so, you see, He's able to make
saving grace abound to you.
It's not because you earned it, not because
there's anything in you or in me.
In fact, the Bible teaches us that we
are sinners by birth and sinners by choice.
But He extends saving grace.
And that's why on the 13th of August
1969, when Jesus walked into a little bedroom
in a little house in Ireland and came
across a wretched man, angry and frustrated with
a gun and a Bible on the bed
in front of him, that's why when he
cried out—I'm talking about myself—when I cried out
to the Lord and said, God, if you're
real, save me, it was grace.
I didn't deserve anything but to go to
jail or to go to hell, but it
was grace that saved me.
He gives saving grace.
And oh, you know, the problem with having
an evangelist in the pulpit most Sundays is
that you get to hear the gospel over
and over again, and you can get bored
with it and you can get tired with
it.
But as long as I live and have
breath, I'm going to preach it because there's
a lost and dying world out there.
We need to be a people of action
because we know the touch of his saving
grace.
He's able to make all grace abound towards
you so that you're always having all sufficiency.
Oh, all sufficiency.
Wow.
Do you ever feel that you don't have
enough sufficiency?
That's about like me looking at all those
emails and stuff.
Man, where does the sufficiency for things in
life come from?
It comes from all of his grace.
And you know, he gives us not just
saving grace but living grace as well.
And I could get downright excited thinking about
living grace because there's things that I find
very hard to face and to deal with.
How about you?
And there are other issues that come into
life from time to time, but would you
look at what this verse says God does?
Not only does he give us all grace
and it abounds toward us, that means there's
plenty of it, and you're always having all
sufficiency.
Oh, all sufficiency.
So it's not about me and what I
can do, it's about his grace working in
my heart and in my life.
And this living grace, you know, is what
helps us in all of those kind of
difficult situations.
Slip back again to Romans and I'm just
going to read again a couple of verses
from Romans chapter 6 and verses 11 and
12.
Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your
mortal body, that you should obey its lusts.
The life of grace is a life that
is different.
It's a life that knows his strength in
living it.
And oh, even this past week I prayed
with so many people at that conference who
were able to say, I can't live the
Christian life.
And one guy stopped in the middle of
his prayer and looked at me, because when
he said that I said, hallelujah.
And he looked at me and thought, are
you going to interrupt me some more or
what?
I said, you know, that's the essence of
all truth when you're at the place where
you know you can't do it.
That brings you back to the place where
you know that God will and must and
can.
And this sense of reckoning ourselves dead to
sin, it doesn't control us anymore.
We have victory over it because of the
indwelling Holy Spirit and Christ's work in us
by his grace.
I feel one of those things coming on,
but because we have gas, I won't do
it.
But you know, you Glencure Knights know what
I'm thinking about, right?
Living grace.
What are the things and the issues that
come at you and that you have to
face, and yet his grace is just right
there.
And you know, we forget it all the
time.
I remember flying into Toronto years ago, my
first day of work with the Billy Graham
Evangelistic Association.
Get on a plane and go to Toronto.
And I got into Toronto's Terminal 2, or
Canada at that time, and the place was
bunged with people.
And I had to rent a car from
National Rental Car.
And I walked over eventually to a policeman
and said, excuse me officer, could you tell
me where the National Rental Place is?
And he looked at me sort of up
and down and he smiled and just pointed
over his shoulder.
Now over his shoulder was a sign about
five feet deep and 40 feet long in
bright green that said National.
And I thought, oh, talk about stupidity.
So I got a car, no map, just
a car.
And I got out onto 427, headed toward
who knows where.
Oh God, I'm supposed to go to Walker's
Land.
Where's that?
Living grace.
And the Spirit of God spoke to my
heart and said, follow that car.
You know, that car took me down onto
the Queen Elizabeth Way and on it.
And I saw the big sign, Walker's Land.
And I'm crying by now because I'm saying,
Lord, not only do you know my need,
but you know how to drive me there
as well.
And then in my panic, I'm saying, Lord,
which way do I turn?
Left or right?
Where am I going to find a relax
in here, Lord?
And it's right across the street.
You see, he gives us living grace, doesn't
he?
And he gives us enduring grace to keep
on keeping on.
And there are times when we feel like
giving up, if we're really honest.
But he gives us enduring grace to persevere
and to follow on after him so that
we'll have all sufficiency in all things and
have an abundance for every good work.
So it's not just enough to keep you
and me going, but it's enough that we
can have an abundance for every good work.
Now, I used to get in a panic
about, Lord, what is it that you want
me to do?
You ever been there?
Lord, could you show me your will for
me?
But in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10,
it says, we are his workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which he foreordained
that we should walk in them.
You know, when I thought about that, why
am I panicking about what is God's will
when he's already set that up?
All I need to be is close to
him and listening to the voice of the
Spirit.
My friends, is it not exciting when you
think about this thing called grace?
Let's think about what that enduring grace means
in relationships and problems and so on.
When there are difficulties in relationships and you
don't feel like going on, where does the
strength come from and the ability to work
in that?
It's his grace.
When you feel so pressed that there's no
room to move, it's his grace.
Ruth Graham used to be asked all the
time by the media, do you ever think
about divorce?
And she always said, no, never thought about
divorce.
His belly was gone all the time, sometimes
six months at a time.
So she'd say, I never thought about divorce.
Murder, I've thought about.
But what is it that causes endurance?
It's grace.
All grace abiding.
Now, you know what happens in grace is
that God softens our hearts.
Because when somebody hurts us or offends us
or whatever, our hearts get hard toward that
individual or those circumstances, and we find great
difficulty in looking them in the eye, let
alone working with them.
But grace is that sufficiency that softens the
heart and that allows me to come and
say, I'm genuinely sorry.
See, part of being Irish is that sometimes
you only see half of the story, my
half.
Grace is what keeps us in balance, causes
us to endure, causes us to have that
heart that is so soft before the Lord
and sometimes so broken before the Lord.
And we know His fullness.
You know what happens in His fullness?
There's never an agenda.
It's no longer about what I want, and
it's no longer even about what I need.
It's just about Him and His grace and
His sufficiency.
I have a friend, Ron and Sandy know
him well too, Gerard Dutoy.
He's a South African preacher, a great man
of prayer.
And in a CRF conference one time, he
was supposed to preach on Sunday morning, and
he has a heavy accent.
And the preacher said, I don't think we
should use him on Sunday morning, you know.
Nobody's going to be able to understand him.
And so another preacher, Joe Hamricus, good American
brother, was asked to step in instead.
Here's what grace does.
The natural thing would be to be offended
and just to split.
But grace in Gerard took him over to
Joe on Sunday morning to say, oh my
dear brother, I'm so blessed that you're going
to preach this morning.
Would it be all right if I prayed
for you?
Do you hear what the Spirit of God
is saying to hearts?
His grace and all sufficiency of it.
He also gives us dying grace.
Most of us in this room wonder what
it's going to be like to die, but
there's all sufficiency in His grace.
Corrie Ten Boom, when she was young, asked
her dad, her father, what's it like to
die?
And he said to her, Corrie, when you
came with me to Amsterdam, when we got
on the train, when did you get your
ticket?
And she said, just before we got on
the train.
And he said, well, dying is just like
that.
When the time comes, there will be sufficient
grace for it, because that's part of just
journeying on to eternally be with Jesus, the
Savior.
And this grace, in 2 Peter 3, 18,
it says this, but grow in grace and
in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
So I want to ask you this morning,
in fact, I want to get downright Irish
and nasty and get right in your face
with this question.
Are you growing in grace?
We have no problem growing in knowledge.
God knows we are overwhelmed with knowledge, but
dear church, we need to be full of
the grace of God.
How else will people see Jesus in you
or in me?
God is able to make all grace abound.
Lord, smite me with more of it.
Cause there to be an explosion of your
grace in our hearts and in our lives.
I get the privilege of traveling, and I
want to say this as graciously as I
can, but I don't think I've ever seen
a time when the church of the Lord
Jesus and Christian organizations in general are so
devoid of the grace of the living God,
so determined with our own agendas and so
on, so bound that we're going to win,
and we cannot without his grace.
Forgive me if I'm stepping on toes.
It's not me.
It's him.
There's a fellow one time who said to
me as I was shaking hands with people
at the door, he said, you made me
feel so guilty, and I said, friend, if
you're feeling guilty, it has nothing to do
with me.
It has everything to do with the spirit
of God, and it's time to meet with
him.
I said we'd look at four verses, and
I've used already a great bulk of preaching
time on one, so I better get my
skates on here and get going.
There is a second verse in Ephesians chapter
3 and verse 20, and this is my
life first, so forgive me for slipping it
in here.
It's just that it says the same thing,
that God is able.
It says, now to him, God, who is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we ask or think according to the power
that works in us, he is able to
do what?
More than I ask.
So what are we asking?
And more than I think by faith in
prayer, and how does he accomplish it?
By the spirit of God in us.
He's able to do more in providing what
we need.
He's able to do more in healing us.
Now, you don't have to answer this question,
but it struck me earlier as I was
worshiping the Lord how guilty I am of
often coming to church and not expecting the
Lord to touch somebody and save them or
heal them.
I need that explosion of grace.
How about you?
He's able to guide us.
He's able to do more than we ask
or think.
Now, because it's my hobby horse verse, I'm
not going to say anything much more about
it except just to ask you, what are
the things that you're looking to him for
that are beyond the ordinary and in the
supernatural rather than just the natural?
Slip over with me to number three in
Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 18.
Speaking about Jesus here, and it says, for
in that he himself has suffered being tempted,
he is able to aid those who are
tempted.
And there's those words again, God is able.
He is able because he himself has suffered
He understands all of that that comes with
suffering and with temptation.
And because he has suffered, he's able to
help us.
In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, it says, no
temptation has taken you, but such as is
common to man.
And at the end of that verse, it
says he's able to provide a way of
escape.
And he really is.
I could give you testimony after testimony of
how that is so.
Mark Greening was one of the preachers in
the conference where I just came from, and
we were talking about this very thing, how
the Lord is able sometimes to intervene in
things because he knows and he understands.
Now Mark is one of these technological guys
that is streets ahead of me.
He can stand and have a conversation and
text four people at the same time.
My thumbs don't work that way, neither does
my brain.
But Mark said to me, he said, you
know how good our God is?
He said this last week, a guy called
me and he said, you just called me,
your number came up on my cell phone.
Mark said, no, I'm sorry, sir, you have
it wrong.
I didn't call you.
I'm very sorry, but I didn't do it.
So he hung up on him and the
guy called a second time, a few minutes
later, and he said, look, man, he said,
you called me again.
And Mark said, no, no, sir, I didn't.
I don't know if it's some kind of
glitch in the phone or what's going on
with this, but I did not dial your
number.
I said, okay.
And about five minutes later, the guy called
him a third time and he said to
him, I don't know what's going on, but
your number keeps coming up on my phone.
So what is it that you want to
talk to me about?
Now, Mark is a preacher and after three
times we might get it.
And so he said to him, what were
you doing when these calls came in?
The man said, I was planning on getting
onto my balcony and just jumping off.
Who put the phone number in?
Mark said to him, I do want to
talk to you.
And he had the joy of leading that
man to Jesus across the phone because he
is tempted.
And because he has suffered, he understands all
the things that you and I face and
he is able.
I love this little word.
Now I'm sick this morning, but I feel
an unusual enabling because you're praying for me
and thank you.
He is able.
Well, if we're going to do those soup
and sandwiches, John better hasten along.
Go to a book that's just one chapter,
second last book in the Bible, the little
book of Jude and verse 24.
Sometimes you hear me quote this in a
benediction prayer.
You're going to find it says the same
thing now to him who is able to
keep you from stumbling and to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy to God, our who alone is
wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever.
He is able to keep you.
A lot of people say to me, I
can't really come to Jesus because I couldn't
keep it up.
You don't have to.
You just have to put your trust in
him.
He will keep you.
There have been so many times in my
life when I couldn't keep myself and he
is so able to do just that.
Earlier this year, when I took my tumble
and collapsed on the 20th of February, I
was lying on the floor of our dining
room thinking, is this it?
This one little word came into my mind,
faultless.
You see what it says?
Now, you know, old John well enough to
know he is far from faultless in so
many ways.
But look at what it says, God is
able to do.
You know, there are so many lies that
the devil throws at you, dear church, and
we believe so many of them, and it
stops us from being a people of action.
God is able to keep you from stumbling
and to present you faultless before his presence.
Our part is just to walk with him
in obedience, in softness, in tenderness, in listening
and trusting.
Notice one last thing before I wrap it
up this morning.
How is the Lord Jesus going to do
this?
It's his joy.
It's with exceeding joy that he's going to
do that.
And I bless his name, don't you?
When we're in Christ Jesus, it's his ability
that matters, not yours or mine.
Now, some of us in here this morning
are facing impossibilities.
Perhaps we're facing fractured relationships.
Perhaps we're facing health issues.
Perhaps we're facing a lot of other things
as well.
And this morning, I just want to close
with this little thought.
God is able to make all grace abound
toward you.
Yes, in the midst of that struggle, in
the midst of that trial, in the midst
of that hurt, he is able.
So, let's look to him in prayer for
a few moments.
As we bow our heads and close our
eyes, if we were honest, we'd have to
confess this morning that unbelief lingers in our
hearts and minds and very souls.
We don't know how to fix ourselves and
we don't know how to fix relationships.
And we're not sure that God can either.
But the truth is, he is able.
And the truth is, it's not about the
other person.
It's about that grace of God in your
heart and mine.
It's about that grace that's all sufficient.
That grace that even in woundedness can turn
to the one who has wounded you and
say, I'm sorry.
I love you.
I need you.
It's that grace that so softens the heart,
that encourages us to know that he's able
to do exceeding abundant life above anything that
I can ask, anything I can think, anything
I can imagine.
It's that grace because he has suffered and
been tempted.
It's that grace that allows us to go
to him this morning.
And, oh, friend of mine, this morning, I
want to encourage you to go to Jesus.
Run to Jesus.
He alone is the author and finisher of
our faith.
He is full of grace and truth.
And in all the overwhelming circumstances of life,
he is sufficient.
Just while we're in the attitude of prayer,
perhaps there are needs in your heart this
morning.
I want to close in prayer by praying
for you.
You have a need this morning.
Just quietly for a second or two, slip
up your hand.
I want to remember you in prayer.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Lord, you know the needs of every one
of our hearts this morning.
You know the aches and the desires.
You know the woundedness and the struggle.
Father, we're just coming to the cross to
set all that down because we can't carry
it.
So, we're asking for your abundant grace to
just explode in our hearts.
Forgive us, Father, for our unbelief and grant
us faith to walk with you, faith to
lean on you, faith to trust you beyond
every area that overwhelms us.
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on
us.
Fall fresh on us.
Melt us.
Mold us.
Make us into the image of Jesus.
For it is in Jesus' name that we
ask it.
Amen.
I'll ask Mark and the team to come
back and lead us in a closing song
and then we'll have our closing prayer.
Amazing grace.
Isn't it great to have Pastor Tom with
us week by week?
I'm going to ask him just to close
in prayer.
Don't forget about the Plan to Protect seminar
and also if you're a guest, just feel
free to come and enjoy soup and sandwiches
and God bless you.