Brother Gary Sunday Morning 2/16/14

A Very Special Grace by Jake Hess:

When my life is tested by some bitter trial
When the tempter tries to tempt me in life's way
When darkness dreary falls across my journey
Then my Jesus gives a very special grace

A very special grace .. in times of trouble
A very special grace .. to see me through
A very special grace .. just to heal all my heartaches
How Jesus wants to give this special grace to you

I know that I was never, never worthy
My sins demanded I be punished too
Then I heard that Jesus took my place on Mt. Calvary
And His special grace was there to see me through

A very special grace .. in times of trouble
A very special grace .. will see you through
A very special grace .. just to heal all your heartaches
How Jesus wants to give this special grace to you
Now Jesus wants to give this special grace to you

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Rom 5:4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

We are justified by faith.  There is no way to get help from God but by having faith in God.  We must come to Him in faith believing that He will be gracious and supply that need to us.

We have access by faith into the second grace, into the grace of being sanctified wholly.  This bible truth cannot be diminished.  The foundation of the Lord stands sure. 

There are times in our life when we need, as Jake Hess who wrote this song, a very special grace in our life.  We need a divine intervention in our soul, in our mind, and in our circumstances.  There is no other place than God to go for grace.  There is no place other than the throne of grace for us to approach and receive what we need.

We glory in tribulations:  the word ‘tribulations’ is the thought of the trials of life, the difficulties of life, and the hard places of life.  We have had too many examples of people that have failed of the grace of God in the hard places in life.

We would desire to follow the counsel that Sister E Faith Stewart gave Sister Martin before she died.  “Be faithful to the end.”  This was when she was preparing to make her final flight into heaven.

There will be severe trials in life.  There will be times where in our self we will not be able to withstand.  Accusation, disappointment, heartache, … 

Paul left the word “Knowing the tribulation works patience.”  If we will get it rightly focused and be rightly related to God to be patient in the trial then tribulation will work for us.  There is no way that we can be patient in the trial without the grace of God. 

When things go wrong it is hard not to take it in our own hands and do whatever is not the best.  Better than that is knowing God in His fullest and knowing God that we can have that second grace and have access to that very special grace for whatever season of life it is.  It may be for a day or for a long series. 

There is a God in heaven that has a very special grace for that season that you are in.  When my brother was killed on highway 28, my father had to come down the Bull River cutoff.  When they came and told my mother that her son had been killed she felt herself fainting and cried out to God and instantly a staff of grace came into her soul and she was able to go right on serving God.  Yes she hurt to her dying day from it.

If we are to gain the experience of knowing God in His fullest, it would be the heart-cry of every one that is saved, “I want to know God in a greater way, I want to have more of God.  I want to come to you in the fullness of the blessing.”

It doesn’t matter what our employment for the day or the hour is, the thought would be, “We want to go in the fullest of the blessing.”  This week may have been a week of many trials, discouragements, heartaches and sorrows, of dilemmas that we don’t have the answer to. 

“Oh God that we would have a very special grace to come through the trials, to have patience in them.”  God knows what all the needs are.  There is a special grace to get us to where God has designed that we should be.

After hearing this song, there was something about it that stuck in my mind for two years, “A very special grace.”  We don’t know what this Jake Hess that wrote the song was going through.  I don’t want to know if I have cancer.  My thought is, I don’t know what the writer of that song faced.

I thought as I heard it sung, “That young man is singing a song about a very special grace.  Is this an experience that he has or is it a song that he likes and he will have an experience down the road?”  We all know how that is.

Patience works experience:  I know, you know, we know; we can go to Matthew chapter 24 and see where the outlook is that there are always difficult times ahead until Jesus comes.  There will always be a lot of difficulty.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Everything can be right between you and God with everything not being right in the world that you live in.  Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Tribulation means in the world you shall have pressure.  I think of the pressure my father had, born in 1908.  I think of the pressure of DS Warner.  They were blessed that they had none of the things that you and I tend to think bring pressures into our life but they had pressure.

Jesus had pressure.  It is the part of the world there will be pressure.

There will be affliction.  Affliction can be physical, emotional, that which comes from the body or mind.  It can be spiritual battles that you and I face where we feel that all hell is turned loose against us.  It means stresses and anxiety.

Remember that these are places where God shows Himself strong.

In Revelations Chapter 7, it shows in the first dozen verses, 144,000 that had gotten the victory of the 12 tribes of Israel and then it shows beginning in verse 9 a great multitude.  Then it asked, “Who are these in white robes standing with clean hands before the throne?” 

“These are they that came out of tribulation and have washed their robes…”  Every one of us is designed to be a part of that great multitude that comes through the difficulties, the heartaches, and the disappointments of life.  All of those things that can be said to bring care, anxiety, and gloom about today and lead us to fear of tomorrow.

We cannot stay in that state.  We must come out of the great tribulation, of the great trial, the great heartache, and the great disappointment.  You may say, “I may look like a success but if feel like a failure.”  You must come out of that failure.  “Out of my failure into thy light, out of my distress into …”

There will be incidents in every one of our lives, where we will find our self in a dilemma that we have no answer to.  We cannot figure that thing out.  I am glad to talk to you and pray for you and do everything that we possibly can to help you but one thing that we cannot give you is a very special grace.

Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Rev 7:16  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

Rev 7:17  For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

These are they that came out of great trials.  The enemy of our souls is playing for keeps.  Our trials are not going to get less. The road is not going to get easier.  The hill will not become less steep.  The temptations come for every age.  When God so graciously saves us from our sin then we experience the enemy trying to draw us back and that is what temptation is.

When temptation draws you to conform to the world or be more concerned about yourself and about the world than about God, it gets old.  When you reach my age the enemy comes with ridiculous temptations. To yield to temptations at any age is ridiculous.  You can yield to it but you will not be satisfied. 

The offering of the tempter always comes from the voice of a liar.  No one can refute that. 

These are they that came out of great tribulation.  Heartache:  Heartache is a part of life.  We must come through heartache.  You can be healed of that heartache.  We have a God of new beginnings.  We serve a God of new beginnings. 

We have heard marvelous messages that the failures of the past need not be the testimony of the present.  Heartaches and disappointment is a part of life.  We must come through the disappointments.

There will be sickness in our life.  I wish I had never been sick.  Probably the sickest I was, was when Karen was expecting Kathy.  We don’t make that decision to not be sick.  We can only make the choice, “I am going to come out of this sickness serving God.” 

Children have fears.  “I’m a little scared to go to school today.  I’m a little scared of that bully and of what the future holds.”  The parent doesn’t tell the child, “I’m battling fear too:  Will that child make good choices.  What will they do with their life?”

Fear grips the soul and we say, “God I have to trust.  I cannot allow my life to be governed by fears.  Unless you have a very special grace you will be among the fearful and unbelieving.

It is not just the dilemma of “Where shall I go to school, where shall I work, or how should I handle this explosive situation with this individual?”  We don’t choose who comes into our life and who we meet here or there.  Dilemmas.  Distresses. 

1Pe 4:7  But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

What an inspiration and scripture that peter brought to those that were there.

1Pe 4:8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

1Pe 4:9  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

1Pe 4:10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

The God that I know, for anyone here that is unsaved, you have received a marvelous gift of conviction.  Conviction is a wonderful thing. 

If you are here and would say, “I know that I am saved but there is definite conviction in my life of measuring and laying aside, finding what to do with my life, I find myself in a dilemma I am here and things haven’t worked out like I thought that they would, what should I do?”

The answer is right here:  minister the gift you have received as a good steward of manifold grace of God.

God’s body is a self adjusting body.  We have seen where someone was taken away and God gave His grace to someone else and they stepped in and were used. 

The manifold grace of God teaches you when to speak and when to be quiet.  How many times has His Spirit said, “Don’t have part or lot with any of it.  Don’t touch it and don’t let it touch you.” 

I was going to go somewhere and God’s grace spoke to me, “Why don’t you walk through McGowans?”  I met there the young man that I told you that I congratulated on having a new baby.  He looked like a man that hadn’t slept in two weeks.  He said, “Why do we forget God?”

Grace means: especially the divine influence upon the heart and it’s reflection into the life.

Grace is at least two-fold.  If grace shines in then grace shines out.  It is marvelous.

Think it not strange to find ourselves in desperate straights.  Don’t beat up yourself if you are desperate for an answer and your face is against the wall.  If you have a decision to make and it seems there are 100 ways that you can go and if you turn a bit there are even more ways.  Grace is especially the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection out into our life.

God has manifold wisdom and grace for each dilemma.  He has abundance of ways to provide for our needs.

Many have needed a special grace before us.  Someday there will be a meeting in the air.  I trust Jake Hess is saved.  Maybe he is already there, I don’t know.  Maybe I’ll meet him and say, “That song really helped me, will you tell me the story of that song?  We never met on earth but you found that there is a special grace for every time of need.”

The Bible is full of stories of those who God provided the grace, they sought it and they received it.