Receiving Grace | Jud Wilhite

Let's give it up. And if we just also want to give a huge shout out to anybody watching through our partnership with God Behind Bars, with the Panda web, we are so glad to have you here with us today. Yes, absolutely. And right now is the perfect time. Right now is the perfect time to open up your central church app and follow along with the teaching notes. Right under the experience tab, you can catch those there. So let's welcome up Pastor Jed as he brings us a message of hope. All right. Great to see you guys today. Big shout out to our central family locations, to central Kingman and Summerlin, Aleante, Sunrise Mountain. Good to have you guys with us. Hey, anybody heard the phrase like old habits die hard? Old habits die hard. So you get into a behavioral pattern or into a framework in your life, and it can be really hard to get out of that framework. For instance, I have a toxic relationship with the Dallas Cowboy football team. I've been cheering them on for 30 years, no Super Bowls. We do the same thing every year, but old habits die hard. And so first game of the season, I'm always believing, man. This could be the year. I mean, nothing, ownership hasn't changed, nothing, you know, significance changed, but this could be the year. And so I did it again this year, you know. So they had their opener on Sunday night, and I'm watching the game, and I had recorded it. It was the evening game. And my wife Lori was out of town and she called me.

Now the game had just ended. She told me she knew the score, but I still had the majority of the game to watch. And so I didn't want to know what the score was, and she knew that, so she wasn't telling me. But she was in a really good mood, which I felt like was sending me like a certain, a certain vibe. You know what I'm saying? Like, a certain vibe. And I even said to her, I said, like, don't, don't, you know, like, don't tell me, don't tell me the score. I said, but, but like good vibes, right? And she says back to me, good vibes, and I'm like, all right, cool. I interpreted this to mean the Dallas Cowboys are going to win, right? So when there was like an interception in the first half, it doesn't bother me. It's cool. No problem. Like, I know we're going to win. Good vibes. My wife affirmed it, you know, and then we get into the second half and the Cowboys are down. They get into the fourth quarter. They're down by like two scores. I'm like, man, it's going to be a good quarter. Like, we're going to turn it around, right? We get all the way down to like one minute and the Cowboys are down. And I'm like, wow, I don't, I don't really know how they're going to pull this out. Man, it must be like a really crazy play at the last minute. And then I just literally watch them keep running the clock down, taking a knee, taking a knee, and then it just, you know, players are running out on the field, coaches are running out on the field.

And it says, you know, the Cowboys are 20 and the Giants are 28, final score, Cowboys lost. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, I don't understand. I was so, I kept, I kept believing because old habits die hard and, and I fast forwarded through the commercials, like after the final was on the thing, because I thought, maybe it's just some miraculous, crazy thing that happened and they had to clear all the people off the field. And oh my gosh, you know, put a minute back on the clock and the Cowboys are going to pull this out. And, and so I come back after the commercial and it's, no, it's really over. The Cowboys choked. So I call Lori and I'm like, Lori, you told me good vibes. She said, Judd, I was being sarcastic. And I can't even really blame her because, you know, like old habits die hard. I heard what I wanted to hear, right? This is going to be the year. This is going to be the year. Maybe not. Although the Raiders looked much improved and that was, that was a good sign. So, or the Dolphins were terrible. I don't know. We will, we will find out. But I think this is like true in, in human nature in our lives. Old habits die hard. Old relationships sometimes die hard. Old temptations can die hard. You know, old thought patterns in our lives can die hard. And when it comes to the grace of Jesus Christ, sometimes we sort of see the grace of Jesus that works in our lives as something for the beginning of our spiritual life. But then after we've been forgiven.

Now it's up to us, right? Come on, somebody. Now it's up to you. Like, think about all God did for you and now you need to get it together, right? You got to pay back all that stuff that happened or you got to work really hard to somehow complete what Jesus started in your life. And sometimes we kind of go down this road where we think now it's you're you're rewarded based on your performance right you know with home with relationships and family there's certain things that are expected of you and you do them but I think when it comes to God's grace we realize we have to realize that everything is a gift from God our salvation what God does for us when we place our faith and trust in him we receive his forgiveness in our lives we receive the gift of God's spirit within us we become part of a family a church family a church community we get spiritual gifts that come along things that we can do a purpose that we can engage in all of this is like the free gift of God and it's not just for the first moments of your spiritual experience it's for your entire spiritual experience in other words God's undeserved unmerited favor saves you and then it disciples you and ultimately it completes you in your life it's all grace and that realization is something that can start to set you free because if you go about your spiritual journey thinking God forgave me but now it's about my performance primarily here's where I believe you will end up because this is I've been down this road you're going to end up tired and exhausted frustrated you're going to feel like you're never good enough and at some point you may just want to check out because you just think I can't measure up and I think it's because we got God's grace a little bit twisted now this is what happened to the group of believers in the area of Galatia modern day turkey in the ancient world the apostle paul writes a book in the new testament called the letter of Galatians to these followers of Jesus and what had happened is they had initially come in and believed in Jesus Christ and trusted him and his grace for their salvation but then this group came in after them that were known as Judaizers the Judaizers says and these were non-Jewish people by the way many of them that were talking about that it believed in Jesus but the Judaizers come in and they're like now that you believe in Jesus that's great but now you need to go back and you need to live out the mosaic law of the Old Testament you know to these non-Jewish people if you're not circumcised you need to be circumcised if you don't know what that is look it up would

not be pleasant as a an older individual without anesthesia if you know what I'm saying you need to follow the you need to follow the Jewish dietary laws you need to follow the Jewish ceremonial kind of purity laws in your life you need to keep the Sabbath on Saturday keep it holy like and these things are not bad things the law is a good thing we talked about this at length last week so I won't go through it but I'll encourage if you miss last week it's really important that you understand the dynamics of what's happening when the Bible talks about the law and grace but the Old Testament law is a beautiful thing it's a good thing it's from God but what we're going to see Paul gets so frustrated with is we have to realize that while the law can show you the way it ultimately doesn't save you in the way right grace is what saves you and we respond to that out of all that God has done in our life so Paul's very frustrated that these followers of Jesus have taken grace and now they've gone back to their human effort to try and kind of earn their way and so here's what he says in Galatians chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 help me out by reading the red word when we get here he says oh foolish Galatians tell us how you really feel Paul foolish Galatians who has cast an evil spell on you for the meaning of Jesus Christ death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross he says let me ask you this one question did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses of course not you received the spirit because you what believed the message you heard about Christ now we talked about this at length last week but he's like you didn't receive God's spirit in your life because you so perfectly obeyed the law when you hear the law it could be a reference to the 10 commandments the mosaic law would be kind of a broad word that could describe the first five books of the Bible so there's civil law in there that was to the Israelites at that time there's ceremonial law and the sacrificial system and the temple the way they worshiped back then as well as like the 10 commandments he's like all of that right you you keep all of that but that's not how you received the Holy Spirit in your life he says you believe the message that you heard about Jesus and I just want to remind you today and encourage you because grace is not only God's grace it not only sets you free but it is what keeps you free and we're going to talk about how we can grow in God's grace today and respond to all that he's done in our life the first thing we need to do is hang on to that grace hang on to grace in your life who are my pet people who are my people who love dogs and Birds, you know, different kind of pets. Yeah, so like, I love pets,

but have you noticed that like a lot of pets, everything is cool until it's time to eat. And then it gets very transactional. Does anybody have a pet like this? Like, we have this little French bulldog Stella, she's great, but like, when it's time to eat, like, it's all about what have you done for me lately? Like, it's just, I'm hungry, I want it right now. And I'm telling you, man, like, she wakes me up every morning. She doesn't do this with Lori, she only does this with me. She literally wakes me up every morning. And often it's like 5.30 in the morning, I hear hot breath in my ear. Like, she just, she's just like right there breathing in my ear, she'll start licking me. If I don't respond, she will stand on me. If I don't respond, this has happened, she will start to stand on my head. Like, literally stand on my head. And I just feel like, you know, you're so demanding. There's no consideration for, do I have a long day ahead of me? There's no consideration for, did I sleep well? Maybe I need to get another half hour in here, right? There's no like, consideration that I've done this for you a thousand other days before, with her, when it's time to eat, it is, what have you done for me lately? And let's go.

You know, do the right thing. Oh, oh, oh, feed me, right? So I have to take her down, feed her, and then after she eats, you know what she wants to do? She wants to go right back to sleep. She just literally wakes up to eat and she's like, back to sleep for me. And I think sometimes this can become our picture of God. Like, we see God is demanding and he is holy and he is pure, but we start to think that God is looking at our life and he's saying, "Hey, what have you done for me lately?" Like, step up and step in and do better and be better and earn your way. And Paul is challenging us. That's getting grace and works flipped around. Works are important, but grace is what comes first and grace is actually what helps produce the works in our lives. Look at Galatians chapter two, beginning in verse 16. Paul says this, he says, yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For what? No one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.

In fact, we looked at this last week, but the law, it shows us a guide. It shows us a mirror of our own sin and failures. It shows us principles of how to live, but ultimately the law reminds us of our need for God and his goodness and his grace in our lives. So we gotta hang on to that grace. And the early Protestant reformers, they had these statements that were famous across Europe at one point. They were known as the five solas or the five alones. And I'm gonna share them with you now because I think it just reiterates the power that we have to hold onto of God's grace in our lives. These are the five solas. The first is this, scripture alone. So in other words, scripture, the Bible is the ultimate foundation and the number one rule of thought and life for us. That's why every week we open the Bible, we study the Bible, we believe it's the word of God. Yes, sometimes we wrestle and disagree with how to interpret certain passages, but there's no like wrestling in our culture, church culture, that this is the inspired word of God that's the rule of faith in life for all of us, scripture alone, above tradition, above history, above everything else, scripture. All right, here's the next thing, faith alone, faith alone that we, as Paul has just said,

we come to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ by trusting in Him, by believing in Him, it's faith alone. And then grace alone, it's the free, undeserved, unmerited grace of God that comes to us when we place our faith and our trust in Him. And this is through Christ alone. And what Christ has done and all that He's accomplished for us, and lastly, it's to the glory of God alone. And so it's scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. That's the grace of God for all of us in our lives. And so if you feel condemned all the time, maybe you've sort of slipped back into an old habit of living under your own sort of barometer of what's good enough rather than God's grace. Old patterns of guilt or shame, things that you've done, things that you've left undone. And I might just suggest to think about this, it could be that you've sort of raised up an idol in your life. An idol, you know, in the ancient world, an idol would be like a little sculpture of something that you would bow down to and worship. Nobody has idols today in that sense. But really what an idol was is anything that you worshiped above God or you put above God in your life. You don't need a little piece of stone, you know, to have an idol, right? And idols, anything you put above God in your life. And, you know, it's something that you place above.

I mean, think about this, a beauty idol will call you ugly and worthless, right? A success idol will tell you you're a washed up loser. A strength idol will call you weak. A moral idol will call you finished. A popularity idol will call you boring. An approval idol will declare that you're broken or useless. And you know what you're supposed to do with idols? When you look through the Old Testament, you're supposed to tear them down. You're supposed to tear them down because God is supposed to come first in your life. And the good news of this, when it comes to grace, is simply this. Listen, if God says that you are forgiven through faith in Jesus in his word, then you're forgiven. If God says you're spiritually free from your past and your sin, then you're free. If God declares you worthy, loved, adopted his friend, his heir, his representative, someone who is meant for better things, then that's the reality because God alone has that authority. God alone is the judge. God alone can save you and bless you and reward you. God alone is the one who determines your worth and your destiny. And he gave his life so that you could have new life. And so if if he's number one in your life, then his voice needs to be number one in your life. Hang on to that grace. God's grace sets you free, but it not only sets you free, it keeps you free. And that reminds us today that grace isn't just for the beginning of our faith journey. It's for all of our faith journey. We need to grow in grace. We need to grow in grace. I'm going to bring an image up here on the screen and some of you will react differently to this based on your personality. So this is just a gas gauge all the way down to E. Now, how many of you, when you see that, that makes you a little nervous, right? Like you don't, you don't like that.

Some of you, you don't even let it get some of you feel this way when it gets to like half a tank, right? You're like, I got to get to the gas station. I got to fill up, right? How many of you, when you see this, you think, no problem, we're good to go. We're still, it's not even below E yet. Right? Like, I got like 40 miles still, you know? Or maybe you're like a, maybe you're an EV person and they, you know, there's something with EVs they call range anxiety, you know, because if you've ever been in an EV or, you know, you're driving along and it's like, you know, whatever, 20%. And then you don't drive very long at all. And all of a sudden it's like, boom, 6%. You're like, wait, what, that wasn't that what? And then like when it gets to zero, is it zero? Like, I don't know. And you know, so it's the whole thing, this range, but the thing is you get concerned at some point because if you run out of gas or if you run out of power, then you're stranded, you stop. And I think spiritually, some of us have started the faith journey, sometimes for years. And we started after receiving God's grace initially, like the Galatian believers, we started to operate in our own power and strength. And eventually we ran out of gas. And we're exhausted and we're worn out. And we can wonder like, what's wrong with us? What's the problem? Well, the problem is you need grace every single day in your life. Dallas Willard, this great theologian, he said, a believer in Jesus burns through grace like a 747 on takeoff every day. I looked it up. A 747 burns about 5,000 gallons on takeoff every day. In other words, every day, we need God's forgiveness, his healing, his power, his mercy, his blessing, his protection, his grace, his strength, his provision. It's not all on you now. It's not all on you. You don't have to look in the mirror and now be like, God was really good to forgive me.

And now I got to pull it together. Look, God was good to forgive you and God will help you pull it together, right? And he'll forgive you when you fall along the way and you will. He'll forgive you when you trip and you will, right? That's what his grace and his mercy ultimately reminds us of. We need grace every day to run our lives. Look at this Galatians chapter three, beginning of verse three, he says to the Galatians, how foolish can you be after starting your new lives in the spirit? Why are you now trying to become perfect by your own, what, human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Paul's like, listen, you started depending on God and his power and his grace. and you didn't expect that much of yourself. 'Cause you already knew you were a sinner saved by grace, that was your only hope, right? You just trusted God to take care of the rest. But somewhere along the way, you started thinking a little bit more of yourself and relying more of yourself. And then you started thinking it's actually about yourself and your strength and how good you are and how many times you show up to church this week and are you tithing faithfully and, you know, did you hit your prayer times at all the right points and sometimes all of those good things can get distorted, right? You show up to worship, to check a box, rather than to bring glory to the God who created you and love you, right? Or you give financially, that's a great thing, but you give financially out of guilt, right? Or you feel like, oh man, I just, I'm supposed to do that. Instead of joyfully and gratefully.

Or, you know, like, you could just go down the list and start imagining all the ways that we can start twisting all the good things that God has done in our life. And Paul's just trying to call him. He's like, what's this human effort stuff? In fact, he says, you're trying to become perfect by human effort. The word perfect means basically to be completed. In other words, Jesus started your salvation by grace through faith. Now you're trying to complete it through your own human effort. He's like, don't do that. Keep going back and relying on God and trusting him. So let's think a little bit about the spiritual journey. What does it look like to grow in grace? I put some thoughts together that might be helpful to discuss. And these aren't, this is just kind of a guide to give us some conversation pieces because I don't necessarily think this is all together linear. And I feel like sometimes we can be in different phases in our life. Sometimes we can revert, if you know what I mean, back to earlier phases. But let's just think about it this way. Growing in grace, okay? So we have an early phase. This is, some of you are in the early phase right now.

You've only recently become a follower of Jesus. Maybe you raised your hand, you said the prayer, you took that spiritual step in your life. Maybe you just follow through, you got baptized. And typically when you're in the early phase as a follower of Jesus, that's gonna mean a couple of things. One, you usually have higher passion. You're like fired up, man. It's like all this stuff is new, it's exciting. God's so real. I don't even know God was real. I don't even believe in God last week. And now God's like, oh, I can think about. He's like moving through my life. I see this, it's incredible. You talk about God a lot. You share your faith with your friends and your family. I mean, honestly the people who bring more people to church than anybody else are typically early phase believers. 'Cause they're like so fired up, it's new. They're just bringing everybody with them. Now they also drive people crazy 'cause they're a little overzealous. Anybody know what I'm talking about, right? You know, your friends and family are like, be quiet already, we got it. They got a lot of passion, they got fresh knowledge, right? So they're learning brand new things about Jesus, about the Bible, it's exciting, it's amazing. But frankly, like they just have enough knowledge

to be dangerous, you know what I mean? I think they're approach often to the church. And I think this is appropriate in the early phase is like, hey, feed me and help me heal, right? 'Cause they're coming out of a lot of brokenness typically in pain and difficulties in their life, feed me, help me heal. And so that's appropriate. They're in the early phase of the spiritual journey. They're just beginning their grace journey. And I think the threat here is a dropout threat because sometimes what you see, and sometimes I see this like in a month, sometimes I see it can happen in a year, 18 months, but a person comes to faith in Christ, they have passion, they're growing in their knowledge, they're learning, they're healing, they're developing, but just like the meteor that took off into the sky, they can fall just as fast back to the ground and they're gone. Now, here's what I believe. I believe if the Holy Spirit has them and God's grace has truly done a work in their life, he will call them home to himself. He will do the work in their life. I don't think they're gone, gone. But I would say if you're an early follower of Jesus, my challenge to you is don't start relying on yourself, stay humble, realize there's still a lot you don't know and that's okay and just keep showing up

and don't sort of fly high and then crash to the ground, trust that God's got you, even when the passion starts to change and it eventually will go through seasons, all right? So we have the early phase. Then we have what we might call the middle phase, right? A lot of us are in the middle phase, right? This is where you have a little higher commitment, that's awesome, you've stuck through some things, maybe the passions ebbed and flowed or maybe you dropped out for a while, but now you're back. Come on, somebody, I'm back. Right, I'm back, I'm going to have growing knowledge, I'm learning more about the Bible, maybe I'm starting to develop my own spiritual disciplines in a more practical way, reading the Bible regularly, spending time with God in prayer, I'm growing. A lot of times my relationship to the church here is like, you know, encourage me, Help me keep growing in my faith. And but the danger in the middle phrase is what I would call the burnout threat because you start twisting things around like the Galatians did, and you start making it all about your effort and your work and your feelings. Now here's the thing, some of you in the early phase, you're all excited, you have so many feelings, like you just, you got goose bumps all the time, you walk in church, you're like, oh, oh, it's amazing.

God so real, okay, amazing. But then you get in the middle phase and you are gonna hit a window where those feelings don't feel the same. You're gonna hit a window where you might not feel much of anything for a while. You may actually hit a window, and some of you may be here right now, where you're like, I don't know, like what is God doing in my life? I don't feel him anymore, I don't sense him leading me anymore, I don't experience him anymore. Let me give you a thought, 'cause I do believe God does this. Sometimes God will pull back a little bit on our feelings, because as we grow, we have to realize that our faith is bigger than our feelings, and our faith isn't our feelings. And here's what I think happens, this is what I've seen in my own life, sometimes God will withdraw, and you know what that should cause me to do? To lean in, and then I start going deeper, and my faith gets more grounded. Feelings will come and go, just like with your spouse. Hello? Feelings can come and go, but in the middle phase,

you start realizing God's bigger than my feelings. This isn't all about me, I'm living for him, and I'm gonna follow him in faith. But the danger is, you make it all about your effort, how hard you work, all the things you do for God, and then you can literally burn out, and just kind of flame out, and be exhausted and worn out, 'cause you've made it about you. I think where we all wanna keep growing to, is we wanna get to this phase right here, I call the mature phase, okay, the mature phase. You have a higher faithfulness in your life here. I think you start seeing in the mature phase, your whole life is seen through the eyes of faith and commitment, every area of your life, you kind of frame it up realizing that God has seen you through some things in the past, and he will see you through some things in the future. He's the God of the mountain top, but he's the God of the valley. You've lived it now, right, you've walked it. It's been hard, you may still face difficulty, but you know he's there. You also, you don't just have knowledge, or even fresh knowledge, you start to have wisdom now, real wisdom, biblical wisdom to help you discern things as you grow in your knowledge. I think your relationship to the church community

becomes more like, hey, use me, God, use me, use my gifts, use my talents, let me make a contribution back to help other people. But here's the danger, I think, in the mature phase. Now, and one thing I'd say about the mature phase too, I, for me anyway, I think, as you start to move into the mature phase, you stop trying so hard, and you try softer. Instead of trying harder middle phase, you start trying softer, what do I mean? You take yourself a little less seriously, and you try to take God more seriously. You realize you're still the same sinner that came to Christ way back over here. And sometimes, if I'm honest, if somebody hurts me, or if I have something to forgive, and I don't want to forgive them, I can go right back to this phase. Hello. Right, sometimes with gratitude, I can go right back to this phase. You guys are looking at me. Some of you know what I, you all know what I'm talking about, right? Like, and so you realize like, I didn't get here to the degree that I'm here on my own. This is the grace of God, and I need his grace. Oh, so I am trying, but I'm trying softer. You know, when I fail, I give it to God. I ask for his forgiveness.

I believe he forgives me, and I keep following him and moving on, right? It's like I often say to people, I put my arm around him, you know, between services or on the weekend. I was talking to somebody this last week. He's so intense right now, and you know, God's really doing a great work in his life, and he's, you know, he's struggling with a lot of things. I just put my arm around him. I say, hey, just breathe. Try a little softer. Go easy on yourself. Take God more seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously. 'Cause you're still the same center God saved years ago by grace, and he's gonna see that all the way to completion in your life. But I think the threat sometimes is what I would call the checkout threat. I was talking to a young adult, really sharp, grew up in the church, has actually, you know, you can be a young adult and be in a mature phase. This is not necessarily like age, right? You can be, you know, 80 and be way over here somewhere. I don't even sure you're on the thing. You know, anybody know what I'm talking about? Or you could be 17 and you could be living your life out way more like a mature individual

in your faith journey. So that's where I think it starts to break down, right? It's not all linear, like from a time standpoint, I was talking to this young adult. He goes, man, I started going to this church. He lives in another state. He goes, I started going to this church and, you know, I'm just, I don't know, like, this is what he said to me. He goes, I don't know if it's deep enough. I think I need something deeper and, you know, I was priming the pump to respond and before I could respond, this is what he said to me. He said, but then I started thinking, maybe it's not about me. Maybe I'm at this church because I need to lead a group. Maybe I'm at this church because I need to disciple some other people and help them grow deeper. And it told me, even though he's in his mid 20s, he's moving into the mature phase, right? That's maturity. And so we're all on the journey growing in grace. I put all this up here to just maybe think about where you're at right now with some things, some challenges you're facing in your life. And I'm going to share with you three simple habits that I think will allow us to keep moving forward through these phases. And they're not like rocket science habits, but I do think these are the things that work. I think the first habit is personal time with God.

You get in a habit of personal time with God, whether it's in the morning, at night, whenever it is for you, you're engaging with God's word, you're learning to pray, you're growing, you're doing that on a regular basis, that personal time with God will help you grow in grace and develop. The second habit is time with other believers. It's really important that you don't do the spiritual life alone. And so it's great that we sit in rows and we also need times where we sit in circles, right? And we talk to one another and we have people pray for us and we pray for them and we serve one another and help one another. That helps us grow. And the third habit is you start to give back. You realize that you're here to be used by God to help somebody else. You use your time, your talent, your resources to give back to the church, to the kingdom of God to see it advanced in your life. Those three simple habits played out in your life on the daily, through the good times and the bad times, through the good seasons and the tough seasons, will allow you to keep growing in grace. And listen, God's always moving. You can look at a tree and you can look at a tree in winter and it looks like nothing's happening, right? That season, some of you are in the season of winter

and it may feel like nothing's happening. But you know what's happening in the season of winter? That tree, it's proven, is growing. What's happening, the roots are going deeper. The foundation is spreading, right? Things are positioning themselves for the new season to come. If you're in a season of winter right now, just keep relying on God, rely on others. Keep giving back and allowing God to use you and realize those roots are growing deeper even when you can't see it. So I've kept this picture kind of on my office wall for the last 23 years. It's a picture of the Las Vegas Valley. It's had to be updated. That's how long I've had this. At one point I was like, wow, half of those buildings weren't even like it's the different city than it was back then. But this is sort of the picture as it looks today. And you know, everybody thinks of Las Vegas as Sin City. But I love this picture, it just says Grace City. And it reminds us that God's mercy and His grace is new every morning. And His grace is the only thing that helps us grow in our faith, experience Jesus in our life, start the spiritual journey. And so I see Las Vegas and the surrounding region, including Kingman, and I see what God is doing. His grace that's working and moving,

His power that's working and moving. This spring, Central will celebrate our 65th anniversary. Actually, in April, 65 years, God has moved. 65 years, God has poured His grace out. 65 years, God has done amazing work in people's lives. And He not only starts it, but He'll complete it. And you know what God's been reminding me lately? Just like the work of growth that He does in our lives is not all dependent on us, the work that He does through our church is not all dependent on us either. It's grace, right? We're dependent on Him. And I take great confidence when I look back at how God has used Central in spite of ourselves, through our mistakes, through our failures, through the things we got right, over 65 years, it just gives me hope that He's not finished yet. So we're gonna celebrate that in the spring. But listen, that's the kind of church community we wanna be that helps people hang on to grace and grow. the grace of God through Jesus Christ increases all the more. Paul says in Romans 5, 20, he says, "We're sin increased, grace increased all the more." When people feel shame and guilt of the past in their lives rising up and threatening to overwhelm them, God's grace increases all the more. When despair and division and anger reach a fever pitch in our society, God's grace increases all the more. When we see increased needs in our community for food and people who need hope, God's grace increases all the more. When we see families dealing with stress or marriages under strain or loneliness or hopelessness, God's grace increases all the more. And we experience it and we pass it on. So hang on to grace and keep growing in grace. And don't start making what God started all

about you and what you're doing. Keep relying on Him and His strength and His power to fuel you. And you need a lot of fuel. You need a lot of grace to help us all keep growing and He will. He's going to help you individually. And then as you grow, I want you to think about this, your church grows. Because you are the church. As you grow, your church grows. Somebody right now is thinking how do I help my church? You focus on growing in God's grace. Right? You focus on learning, being discipled, becoming the person God's calling you to be. That's going to help our church be the church God's calling us to be. And maybe you're here to deem today, maybe you've never crossed that line of faith. I want to give you that opportunity to reach out to God, to trust Him in your life, and to ask Him to move and work. So if you'd like to step out in faith, I'm going to encourage you to repeat this simple prayer after me, either out loud or in your own heart and mind, to just reach out to God and ask Him to move and work in your life. But all of you bow your heads and close your eyes. And just say, dear God, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus into the world. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I believe you rose again. Forgive me for my sins. Give me the gift of eternal life. Help me face the challenges I'm up against. God, I surrender my life to you and Christ's name. Friends, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's your prayer, if it's your commitment today, I want to ask you to just slip your hand in the air. Just acknowledge you're going to trust Him and follow Him. Whatever location you may be at, if you're watching online, just slip your hand in the air. Reach out to Him today. Just receive His grace today. God, I thank you for each person trusting you. I pray you show up big in their life. Heal, forgive, restore as they follow you and as they trust you. We thank you for these moments. We can gather together. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Let's give it up for those who made spiritual commitments in their life today. And if you made a spiritual commitment in your life, we'd love to get some resources in your hands. You can let us know online or go out to the lobby area and let somebody know there. But I'm going to ask all of you to please stand together with me and I'm going to ask our location pastors to come out, close out their experience.