The Gift of Grace, Part 1 (cont'd)

If God could save us all pewter in the first century church. God can save anybody by his grace, your relatives, your atheist friends agnostic community. Whoever it is. Grace can reach them and change their heart, so I want to keep plan for people cable loving people keep preaching the good news during the earthly ministry of Jesus. He talked about lost sheep, lost coins even lost sons. We never once mentioned lost causes hello and welcome to Destin for victory with pastor Paul Sheppard was senior pastor destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Think about the people you know who are living in rebellion who openly say they don't believe in God and his son Jesus Christ today pastor Paul wants to encourage you not ever are they beyond God's reach God's redemption.

Today's message is straight ahead stay with us now or stop by Pastor Paul.net anytime you hear today's message for any recent Destin for Victor message on command. That's Pastor Paul.you can also subscribe to the podcasting Google podcasts or wherever you enjoyed must join Pastor Paul.

Now she shares today's message gift of grace. When the Bible says all Paul was called to be an apostle that is a clear menstruation of the grace of God and so grace not only as a variety pack but now I'm making the point. Grace can completely change a person's heart completely change all persons heart when you have grace you have God's endowment. You have an ability he has sent from on high that if you need a heart transplant not a physical one but a spiritual one.

Grace has the power to give you that heart transplant not only to give you but to give somebody your praying for somebody you're interceding for somebody who you know needs God and needs him in the Worst Way, God can change that person's heart so I will let you know. Grace is powerful and don't you give up on anybody because you say there's no there's no way they could ever change. If God could save Saul the worst persecutor in the first century church.

God can save anybody by his grace.

That's what I need you to understand your relatives, your your atheist friends, agnostic community, whoever it is. Grace can reach them and change their heart, so I want to keep praying for people cable loving people keep preaching the good news and if you have to use words when you pray to do that. You know sometimes we preach best buy I were showing for the love and the grace of God in our hearts and lives. I am sick of seeing these hateful Christians thinking that doing the will of God. We gotta quit all the telling people to going to hell and think will represent the love of God, the love of God is shown in the fact that people are going to help the love of God is shown in the fact that people have to go and so we need to be proponents. We need to be agents of the love of God of the whole that is in Jesus and we need to know that grace comes in a variety pack everything you need God to give it to you by his grace and grace can completely change a person's heart. Think about all I keep bringing them up when this opens my save called to be an apostle. You would think what I had to be somebody who was almost saved anyway.

Mrs. nobody is almost save the saved or your loss.

Now they are religious laypeople.

There are some folks a good people I know there really good.

They just need the Lord well I don't you mean they do some nice things. Yes, people don't know the Lord to do some very nice things. The Bible say their body know the Lord is hateful and mean and cantankerous know some people can be very nice, very polite, very generous, very much helping other people. You can do that but your spirit will lost until you know Jesus and the good news is, Jesus is available to be found, and he can change anybody's heart and soul.

Don't underestimate the power of God grace can see to the person's heart being changed so you are praying for your loved ones, your coworkers, your friends, whoever it is all who don't know the Lord. Keep praying and keep sharing the love of God, we gotta see that the whole idea of being a witness is just that you artists show what is a witness to the court when they show what they know. They speak what they know, testify to what they say.

So when the Bible says when to be witnesses is not all Yep Yep Yep Yep yeah you gotta show people know Jesus for myself.

He changed me and he can change you as well. So we need to let folks know that grace is in the singular gift comes in a variety pack and grace can change a person completely. Let me give you one more thing about grace is similar to the second point, let me give it to you this way in the third point grace can make saints out of extreme sinners.

Grace can make saints out of extreme sinners, not in some coping well you know my friends are really good.

All they need is the Lord, almost like Gartner, Junior say and they just need to get officially save not only understand everybody who is not saved needs to come to know Jesus.

He's the only Savior of the world.

So we preach faithfully.

The good news of Jesus Christ, which is that God so loved the world gave his only begotten son, that whoever puts his or her trust in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But this third point is grace can make saints out of extreme sinners now will allow me when I say that. Look at verse two of first Corinthians 1 to the church of God which is at Karen with Paul's right there to the Church of God, which is at Karen I'm telling you, if you want understand grace.

You gotta drill down and I need you to know that when the Bible says there was the church of God had call with that tells you that grace isn't just out looking for really nice really polite really well behaved people only God wants to save them to grace is able to reach extreme sinners disable was the Church of God at Karen said that.

Take some time and learn what was going on in the city of: rim. In Paul's day, let me just break it down for you.

For the purposes of this message. Karen was the type of place you would not expect a successful church plant to occur.

If you think about the early church in L bagel Grand Prix is the gospel you if you think while they went to places where people you know very well behaved was just needed to know about Jesus not they went to places where full war extreme as well as people who were really really nice and Karen was one of the extreme ones. Karen had a temple dedicated to a goddess. The goddess of love, appetite but God is love. It featured this temple featured 1000 quote unquote sacred prostitutes.

Imagine a religious temple while it was a temple of God is called love and the temple. They employed 1000 sacred prostitute you would go there for hookups. And that was what they did and Karen. That was one of many temples, but that was one of the ones where you could go and worship in a very ungodly way. Karen also had another temple dedicated to Apollo, and employed young men specifically and their job was to fulfill the sexual desires of both male and female worshipers. Imagine you got temples that you would think that you know they're really in there worshiping some deity or whatever there was a bring a dog named Apollo in their worldview. Our God is name appetite.

But what they were doing was hardly religious worship. It was instead Viola it was licentiousness the likes of which many people would have never seen until they got there. That's what was going on in Karen. When Paul shows up there so when you read acts chapter 18 and you see Paul in the midst of a missionary journey going to the city of Corinth.

There is no Church of God there buddy shows up armed with one thing on message about the grace of God, and solely comes a time to tell him I need you to know that God is a God who has offered to us all a gift called grace and if you open your heart to it that God will change your life and even if you are an extreme sinners he can save you and he can change stay with us the second half of Pastor Paul Shepard's message is coming right up. We want to thank all of you who support destined for victory with your prayers and financial support.

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Pastor Paul.net or simply give us a call at 855-339-5500 again that number is eight 553-3955 for decades now. We seen a steady moral decline take place in our culture. This is not the first time it's happened far from his Pastor Paul with the rest of today's destined for victory message the gift of grace, so that city was known for its unbridled sinfulness. This city was known, so much so that in researching years ago when I first researched what was going on in Karen.

I discovered in the research that that was a Greek verb that was calling specifically because of this city and is a Greek verb, which we would translate to Corinthian eyes and admitted to practice all kinds of sexual immorality and meant when they said your Corinthian eyes and that means you are not just the sinner you are welcome while sexually free sinner you soon. I'm certain that was in the Greek world that was a term name for this city. People go say you know what we know Corinthian eyes that might not know book wow when people describe old city just one wire and means we will make what they don't do the 21st century look is going pale in comparison. We'll go find a possible way to be sexually while we don't do we think you know we say all man look at the sin in the 24 senility people just going to have this lease all on an all know Karen was. People could show you how to get in some and some wildness.

Forget is getting hot in here. So take us forget all that this one word past. I know I went back a couple of decades to do, but the dog at the point I'm old so back to the matter is Corinthian eyes and was a term in Greek culture because of this specific city, and so I want you to know these folk were extreme sinners. And that's where Paul shows up in acts 18 says hey I came to tell y'all some good news. The good news is, God loves you.

The fact that he went preaching the love of God. Read acts 18 to tell all y'all going to hell walk up on him in the temple as the last one he all going to hell. 21st century Christians think that's what God wants us to do when first century Christians who went to wow the places that we ever go to and what they talk about, not the sins of the people they talked about the grace of God I came to the saints. We got to get this right.

God loves sinners.

Jesus came for sinners, we gotta get in the business name and preaching the good news to sinners.

Y'all gotta quit all this who's going to help with all this judgment is focuses on how people are living that is not the way we change our society by getting rid of this and get rid of that debt rid of things that you can, but please understand, you're not helping anybody by telling them what's wrong you help people by showing them God is how much you how much he has a plan for their and God available, wants us to be agents of love as we move out into this world talk to the average sinner today and ask them what they think of Christians and then be prepared to hear the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and many of them will tell you I want nothing to do with Christians or Christianity.

Why, because of how we have misrepresented our mission. We were sent to love and to preach good news and we spend our time.

All too often hating and preaching, you're going to hell moves. Something is wrong with not the message but the messengers when we misrepresent the heart of God took this lost and dying world, God sent Paul to the city of Corinth and Paul went telling them I got good news for y'all, and he shared the grace of God.

He went to all kinds of problems in that city.

I don't have the time to walk you through accepting get it ready when you get a chance at a certain point. He's even thinking of leaving town because he is being persecuted threatening violence all kinds of stuff is happening and so Paul had to change where he preached in one case, because unfortunately the violence being threatened was not from the centers. It was from the religious people. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Religious people can be the worst cold. That's why safely just that you so you do what you want. I have stopped referring to myself in my general life as a Christian I am a Christian I am up but I but because of the term being so represented. When I'm on back when I flew on planes when they would get back told that the back when I would sit next to somebody and then strike up with and it would add new assay so maybe see me read the Bible. Whatever this conversation lend itself to a quick word of of witness and I share something about my face all you Christians want a follower of Christ.

I will follow Christ does not refer to myself I follow Jesus. Don't get me a term not because the time is wrong, but because what is going conjure up in your mind based on the mean people you met or have in your family or have in your neighborhood on your job, who said that Christians so as for me, I'm much more comfortable saying I'm a follower of Christ. You do do what you do is about Jesus is the one who gave us the grace God gave us grace through Jesus Christ. I am a follower of that man.

Jesus is the one who brings good news that changes people's lives that can change them even if they are extreme sinners. And I'm saying that because some of us need to not get amnesic assembly.

All I know, you soon appear wherever you are, you know, feel around the holy but just think back where God brought you from summer y'all might not of been all the way Corinthian eyes and blood summer. Y'all know that you got some stuff not come on just talk more about other people stuff right now. Look in your own mirror and think about what God brought you out of summer y'all were sneaking with yours.

You were an open book. Wow at all that you have been little sneaky. Come on.

I know you because the past. He read me today yes sneaky you know sneaky sin is still sin you know same and that most folks know about is still sin you know a bad heart even if it God manifest in the worst possible ways you never killed anybody.

You never know you never shot anybody but if you got hatred in your heart if you got now is in your heart if you got unforgiveness in your heart you got stuff like that in you. Do you know that you mean as much grace as the current because Sam doesn't come in felonies and misdemeanors so we all think you never committed a felony sin. They were my women that that's an and I met so many self-righteous Christians who think they're better off because of what they never did. I never did this. I never did that. I know people who live their life and never never land that tell you what they never did. I never even in my sins. I never stoop okay. You never stoop to this but if we look at what you did. The Bible calls what you did unrighteousness to send doesn't come in misdemeanors and felonies all unrighteousness is sin. Therefore, my brother, my sister, you needed grace and the people were called to win need that same grace and it is available through Jesus Christ. Grace is God's unmerited favor grace is God's riches at Christ's expense, but grace. When you drill down there so much that is available to us because of the amazing grace of God to him letter added like amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found blind but now I see you know many of us have gone through times when we built monuments to misery. Maybe it's guilt or self-condemnation. Maybe we no longer believe we deserve God's blessing by the line. You are a child of the living, loving God and in Christ, you are destined for victory in the highest calling. We have as believers in Christ is to share the gift of God's grace with the world is a great way to do that is by joining Pastor Paul as a destined for victory partner for as little as $20 a month in light of some severe challenges these past two years or so people are eager to hear about the hope we have in Christ, and many are getting that message to the destined for victory broadcast so please prayerfully consider joining Pastor Paul in his mission to share the light of the gospel to all people, even to those who have grown comfortable in the dark is our way of saying thanks for your partnership of $20 or more each month will send you if you think you gifts including one of Pastor Paul's most popular CDs. The best of let my people smile. So, call 855-339-5500 and find out more about how to become a destined for victory, partner, or you can mail your gift right now letting us know you wish to become a partner. The addresses destined for victory PO Box 1767, Fremont, CA 94538.

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The greatest gift ever given was the gift of grace because of all the other things I've talked about, but finally because it will keep you firm to the end summer.

Y'all feel shaky someone, you look shaky right now your lifestyle shaking your decision-making is shaky. You got some stuff in your life that sperm. But God said don't worry about it. Grace is an endowment that I give you. You'll have to earn it. And that's tomorrow in Pastor Paul Shepard's message the gift of grace.

Until then, remember he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are destined for victory