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[0:00] Dear Jesus Christ. So a warm, warm, warm welcome to you and I hope you've had a lovely day so far. Just one thing to mention, you're all aware, you're still in the notices, that the Vacancy Committee is meeting on Tuesday evening at 7.30 in the month.

[0:15] Prior to that, the Degas Court meet at 6.30, but mainly just to highlight the Vacancy Committee meeting, as I'm sure you have already been doing, anyone who's not on the Vacancy Committee but who's maybe keen to feedback to the Committee about who we've heard and also who you'd maybe like to hear, please, please, please do just tell the Vacancy Committee your thoughts.

[0:40] That's the whole purpose of the Vacancy Committee, to be a point where the desires and thoughts of the congregation are heard and discussed together.

[0:50] So if you have any thoughts, any feedback for the Vacancy Committee, please, please do give that to anyone who's on the Committee or to myself.

[1:02] I would love to hear that and I'm very grateful to those of you who have been in touch. And please do pray for the Vacancy Committee meeting and for the Vacancy as a whole, as I know you are, because more than anything, more than anything, we want a sense of the Lord's guiding as we seek to fill the Vacancy and for the work of the Gospel to flourish and prosper in our midst here.

[1:22] So please do remember that on Tuesday evening in your prayers and thanks to all who are serving on the Vacancy Committee and look forward to being together on Tuesday night. All the other notices are there on the bulletin.

[1:35] We are here together to worship God and we come together because he is calling us to him. And we're going to begin singing to his praise in Psalm 34 and singing from the beginning.

[1:48] These are wonderful words for us to begin with. They express our praise and thanksgiving to God. They speak of the joy that we have in him, the deliverance that he provides, the fact that as we look to him, we are not ashamed.

[2:03] We cry to him in our need. He saves us. He protects us. And the words that we're going to sing culminate with the great declaration of verses 8 and 9.

[2:15] O taste and see that God is good, who trusts in him is blessed. Fear God his saints, none that in fear shall be with want oppressed. So from the beginning, God will I bless all times.

[2:26] His praise my mouth shall still express. God will I bless all times.

[2:38] His praise my mouth shall still express. My soul shall hold and God the meek shall hear with joyfulness.

[3:06] Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast Ast among the earth still they look to him and light and wear not shame and wear their faces his firm and light good heard and saved him from all his distresses the angel of the

[4:25] Lord and and rend and come faster all those of earth that fear and them delivereth forever o taste and see that God is good who trust in him is blessed hear God his and his and and his and his!

[5:19] and fear shall be with what o! blessed blessed let's pray together dear God our father we thank you that you have brought us here together again this evening and that we have the opportunity to come together to sing your praise to hear your word and to come and bow down before you and worship you because you are our God you are our father you are our!

[5:54] our king our Lord and we are so thankful for everything that you have done for us and so as we come together this evening we come with joy and thanksgiving and the words that we've just sang are so so true in our experience we have tasted and seen that God is good that you are so good and knowing you and being close to you and experiencing your power in our lives is the best thing that we have ever known and we thank you so so much for all that you have done for us we thank you for your love and mercy for your truth and wisdom for your power and glory for your holiness and your justice we thank you that in a world that is so full of sin and so full of things that are wrong and so full of hurt and that we can know you and that we can go through each day of our lives with the promise that you will be with us and all of that is possible because of

[7:00] Jesus the fact that we can know you the fact that we can have you with us the fact that we can come to you this evening and walk with you as we go through our lives is all because you thank you for all that you've done for us for the way that you've revealed yourself to us for the way that you've reached us for the way that you've rescued us and for the way you're restoring us through the work of your Holy Spirit and we just thank you with all our hearts and we pray that you would bless us and keep us and build us up in our faith please bind us closer together and build us up as brothers and sisters help us all as we come to you this evening because so often we are struggling and stumbling along in our faith and sometimes maybe we are full of doubts questioning whether we even have a faith at all and sometimes maybe we feel like we've never quite come to the point of trusting in you whatever stage we're at on our journey with you please meet with us all as we gather this evening bless us keep us build us up and equip us so that we can serve you in the week ahead as a new week begins father our desire as we come to you in repentance and that there will be a sense of renewal and refreshment in our hearts so that we will go into this new week with a renewed commitment to follow you with a deep desire to obey you and with a fresh strength that comes from your gracious provision so that we can live for you in the week ahead we are so conscious father that without you we can do nothing but we thank you that your strength is made perfect in weakness and we thank you that by your amazing grace not only do you may that be what happens this week that all of us use us and we would just be lights that shine brightly for you so please bless each one of us bless us as we worship together and may our singing and our prayers and our reading and our meditation on your word may it all be pleasing in your sight you are our rock and our redeemer and we long to know you more and to live for you faithfully in every part of our lives bless us keep us and be with us we pray in

[9:25] Jesus name amen we're going to sing again from Psalm 51 Psalm 51 singing from verse 7 Psalm 51 is just a wonderful psalm for us to sing it's a psalm we often sing because it's a psalm that really captures so much of what lies at the heart of the gospel it's a psalm of repentance and as many of you will know it was written by David after he had sinned terribly against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba and worse than that and yet these words speak of the sorrow of his sin and yet also speak of the extraordinary power of God's forgiveness and we're going to pick up the psalm from verse 7 where it says do thou with hyssop sprinkle me I shall be cleansed so yea wash thou me and then I shall be whiter than the snow and these are just wonderful words for us to sing especially if we're here tonight feeling guilty about our sin or feeling conscious that we've done something stupid this week said something or failed to do something or just here with a feeling of regret in our hearts we can sing these words we can sing these words knowing that in Jesus we have that healing and cleansing that this psalm speaks so powerfully about so we'll sing verses 7 to 12 and as we do so we are being reminded of the extraordinary hope and healing that we have in the gospel do they will do they with yourself sprinkle me I shall be cleansed so do

[11:33] The snow of gladness and of joyfulness Make me to hear the voice That saw these many bones which thou hast broken May rejoice All thine iniquities protect Thy face I drop my sin Create a clean heart

[12:36] Lord, renew Arise in me within Cast me not from thy sight nor take Thy holy spirit away Restore me thy salvation's joy When thy blessed me stay We're going to read together from God's word in the book of Romans chapter 5 and we'll read the whole of 5 and up to verse 10 of chapter 6

[13:36] Romans chapter 5 5.1 to 6.10 Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God And not only so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope 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 For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet for adventure for a good man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners

[14:40] Christ died for us Much more than now being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And not only so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned For until the law of sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who is the figure of him that was to come But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man

[15:40] Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift For the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one man's offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord

[16:44] What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?

[16:55] Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we had been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death has no more dominion over him for in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Amen this is God's word may he bless it to us we're going to pray again so we'll bow our heads as we pray

[17:58] Father thank you so much for your word we're so thankful that we have it before us we're so thankful that we have it in our own language we thank you that we have access to it and we pray that every day we would feed off your word and we pray especially that as we come together this evening for the public preaching of your word that you'd be preparing our hearts so that we'd hear your voice speaking to us and that your word would be written on our hearts and that it would shape every single part of our lives please give us ears that hear please give us minds that understand please give us hearts that burn with ever deeper love for you and for one another we thank you for everyone who's here tonight thank you for this congregation and for this community and as we come to you together this evening we just want to pray that you would help us all with the different needs and struggles that we face we live in a world that's broken by sin and we ourselves are broken by sin and so we come to you Father in need with struggles with weaknesses with pain and sorrow and we want to lay these needs before you and we thank you that you have you have commanded us to come and to cast our care upon you and because you care for us and so for any here tonight who are struggling we want to pray for them and pray that they'd be encouraged and helped by you we pray that you'd help us all and if we are in any way drifting from you or if we're harboring sin in our lives or if we've been hardened in any way we pray Father that you would soften us and restore us and bring us back close to you we pray for any who are doubting we pray that they would just be assured by you we pray for any who feel the burden of anxieties or of big decisions that they need to make or of pressures whether at home or at work or in other parts of our lives we just pray that you'd help us with all of these things we pray for the wider community and especially for any who are unwell for any who are grieving for any who are facing difficult times just now we pray for them asking that you'd help them we pray for people we know and love who are in the grip of addiction we pray for people who are maybe struggling in their work or in their families and we pray for the children in the congregation in the community that you would guard and protect them please guard and protect families as well in all these ways

[20:24] Father we need you we need your help but we just pray that you would bless and protect and look after the community here and most of all Father we pray that we would see more people come to trust in Jesus we pray Father that you would be just working in people's hearts that your spirit would be just opening people's eyes because we know Father we absolutely know that it is only your spirit that can do that we can we're powerless but you promised to do it and we pray Father that you would indeed do that and we pray that we would see people both children and young adults and indeed those in the older generations we pray that we would see people come to trust in Jesus thank you for everybody here who has come to trust in Jesus and we rejoice that we rejoice to the angels of heaven that sinners have repented but we long for more so we pray Father that you'd be working in this community and we pray for the congregation here and we especially pray at a time of vacancy that you would guide and direct this congregation and the vacancy committee

[21:28] God willing will meet this week we pray that you would be directing us and that you would give clarity and give unity we pray that you would close doors that are not going to be the right path but we pray that you would open up the pathway to the one that you have chosen to take up the work of the gospel here so we look to you Father that is our biggest desire that you would guide us and direct us and so we pray that you would help us now and also we just want to continue to pray Father every week remembering people in need throughout the world and where there's conflict where there's suffering where there are wars and rivers of wars where there is famine disease injustice suffering and pain we just pray for those Lord in desperate need and we pray that the gospel will bring great hope to these people and we pray too that more will be done to help alleviate the suffering of those who are in need and so we pray Father that you'd help us now as we turn to your word prepare our hearts help us to hear your voice and prepare us for this week so that we can all live this week of our lives looking to you serving you and knowing you more and more closely so bless us we pray in Jesus name

[22:47] Amen before we come back to Romans 5 we're going to sing from Psalm 145 and we're going to sing the second version so Psalm 145 version 2 and we're singing from verse 4 to 8 race shall thy works praise unto race the mighty acts show done by thee I will speak of the glorious grace and honour of thy majesty and these words are just amazing they speak of the world recognising and praising the glory of God and these verses speak so powerfully of God's extraordinary attributes of grace and mercy goodness and so we will sing these words with great joy and thanksgiving Psalm 145 verse 4 to 8 to God's praise praise shall thy works face and cherish the mighty acts show done by thee

[24:03] I was because of the glorious face and honour of thy majesty thy wondrous works I will record thy men!

[24:35] might shall be exult of all thy thankful lives O Lord I of thy greatness will unfold!

[25:00] the others shall contently memory of thy goodness great and sing faces cheerfully they faces cheerfully they their whilst they thy righteousness relate the Lord our God is gracious!

[25:47] Compassionate is he also in mercy his plentious path and anger slow and anger slow Amen well I'd like us to turn back together to Romans chapter 5 and I want to read again the last two verses which contain one of my favourite phrases in the whole Bible Romans 5 verse 20 moreover the law entered that the offence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound that a sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by

[26:56] Jesus Christ our Lord and in many ways it's that phrase at the end of verse 20 that captures what I hope to look at together tonight but where sin abounded grace did much more abound these verses and these chapters in Romans are speaking about two of the most important aspects and concepts in the Christian faith they're talking about sin and grace sin refers to all the ways in which we have rebelled against God and it speaks of all the consequences of that rebellion of how that sin has broken the world around us and has broken us and it speaks of everything that is wrong grace refers to God's amazing determination to put that right and that word in particular grace speaks of the pouring out of love and kindness and favour and blessing as a free gift that we do not deserve and which can never be earned and these two concepts are very important for us to understand and at the heart of the gospel there is a tension and a conflict between sin and grace and that's what I want us to think about a little bit more together tonight and

[28:26] I want to start just with a couple of preliminary points that we're going to need to think about and keep in our minds all the way through the first thing we need to recognize sin affects all of us but it can affect us in different ways and the way I want us to think about that is to say that sin can be two things sin can be the wind in our sails and it can also be the storm in our face so I want you to imagine that a strong northerly wind is blowing and if you're trying to go that way it's like a storm in your face it's hard and it's pushing against you but if you're going that way it carries you along and sin can do that it can do both of these things sometimes sin can carry us along like the wind in the sails sometimes sin can be like a storm in our face in other words sin sometimes attacks!

[29:26] us sometimes assists us and so this week sometimes you'll be tempted towards things and sin will just help you along that way in any way it can and other times this week you will feel discouraged and you'll feel guilty you'll feel ashamed you'll feel broken and sin will attack you in every way that it can sin is the wind in our sails it's the storm in our face that's the first preliminary point I want us to remember the second point that I want us to remember that I hope we'll keep coming back to is the fact that in the gospel grace overcomes sin that's what's emphasized so clearly in verse 20 and 21 and it's really one of the truths that lies at the very heart of the gospel in through Jesus and because of Jesus grace overcomes sin so we're remembering sin can affect us in two ways it can be the wind in our sails the storm in our face but in the gospel grace overcomes sin and with all that in mind

[30:40] I want us just to spend a bit of time thinking about a crucial point that affects every single one of us and this is true whether you're a committed follower of Jesus or whether you're not yet a believer or whether you are like many people in our communities where you're just not quite sure where you stand this issue is a massive problem in the whole of our society it's a problem in our communities it's a problem in our churches and it's a problem in our own hearts and this is what I want us to think about tonight it's the problem of not enough grace and so that's the problem of not enough grace and I want to think about this in relation to six key areas where sin affects us and three of these are examples of sin assisting us as the wind in our sails and three of these are examples of sin attacking us as the storm in our face so we've got these two things sitting side by side on the sin assisting us side frequently we can be too critical too casual too negative too critical too casual too negative and this is true of everyone so we can be too critical we can go through our lives we see people and they say and they do things and we don't like it we don't agree with it we don't approve of it and we respond by judging them and that's true of everyone people whether it's we look at people and we have a negative mindset towards what they're doing we judge them we're too critical and sin helps us along in every way we can we're also too casual and so we sin in our own lives and this is where it's so interesting that when it comes to our own sin instead of being critical we're actually often far too accepting of it and so whether that's gossip or pride or greed or envy or drunkenness or unforgiveness there can be so many things that shouldn't be in our lives but we're actually like it's not that big a deal it's okay to do that and again sin assisting us blowing in our sails and leading us down the path that we shouldn't go down so we can be too critical too casual and we can be too negative now

[33:12] I mean that more broadly than just the specific issue of criticism but we can see things happen that we don't like and this can particularly affect us in church collectively or as individual Christians we look at our own circumstances we look at the things that are happening around us we look at our nation we look at the world and we respond with just a sense of despair a sense of doom and gloom and we think oh this it's just it's just finished everything's just gone to the dogs and in each of these sin is blowing in our sails helping us along pushing us in the direction it wants us to go so that's the one side which sin assists us on the other side sin attacks us and that leaves us feeling or I'll give you three examples leaves us feeling too unworthy too weak and too hurt and so in all of these instead of sin helping us along sin is dragging us down attacking us and so we find ourselves feeling too unworthy that affects so so many people in our congregations and in our communities we look at ourselves we compare ourselves to other people and we think

[34:33] I am nowhere near where I should be I don't know enough I've made too many mistakes I'm not going to be able to keep going I've messed up in the past I'm going to mess up again and we just feel too unworthy and sin attacks us with those kind of feelings we also feel too weak so this is something that can cripple us as Christians at any stage whether it's as committed followers of Jesus we see needs in our church and we think I want to serve but I'll probably mess it up I want to get involved I don't think I can I want to invite people to my home they probably won't want to come and we feel too nervous so as Christians it can cripple us but maybe even more so it can cripple us if we're not yet Christians or if you're in the I'm not really sure if I'm a Christian or not category because we think

[35:35] I'm not going to be able to do it and you look at other Christians and you think they're stronger they're more capable and things don't affect them in the way that they affect me and I'm going to fail if I take that next step and whatever whatever our next step is everybody has got a next step in their Christian faith everyone does and whatever that next step is we feel nervous about taking it we feel nervous about making mistakes nervous about what people will say nervous about things changing nervous about letting people down we feel too weak and all the time the devil is saying to us too right you are and sin attacks us and drags us down so we feel too unworthy too weak and perhaps most significantly of all we often feel too hurt and this can be the most powerful of all the examples I'm giving you sin damages the world and damages us and so often something or many things have happened to us that leave us badly bruised there's something that someone's done to us something that someone has said about us maybe that's in our family maybe it's at work maybe it's even in the church something has happened and it's true because of the reality of sin sometimes people are horrible sometimes people do things that they should never do sometimes things happen to you that are totally unfair and they leave you feeling so hurt and often we cannot get past that bruise we cannot get past that feeling of hurt we can't forget we can't move on we can't heal and sometimes we just draw a line and we think

[37:22] I'm not talking to them I'm not forgiving them I'm not letting go and we think that by doing that we're exercising our own authority that we're showing our strength but the truth is we're just imprisoning ourselves in a mindset of frustration and hurt and in each of these examples when we feel too unworthy when we feel too weak when we feel too hurt sin comes like a storm in our face and it's stopping us in our tracks it's beating us down so on the one side sin helps us along making us too critical too casual too negative and the other side sin beats us down feeling too unworthy too weak too hurt now two key things I want to say about all of these examples one we all fall into these traps so when I decide these three things on this side and these three things on this side I'm describing myself before I'm describing any of you and maybe there's one or two that we're more prone to but these are all traps that we all fall into we all we all struggle with them and there's times when sin does push us along and we fall into a mindset and patterns of behaviour that seems so easy and yet are so damaging and there's other times when sin drags us down and we feel so weak and we compare ourselves to others and we just lose any sense of self confidence at all our feelings of unworthiness can just often leave us feeling frustrated and sometimes those feelings of unworthiness on this side can make us critical on this side and sometimes the feelings of weakness on this side can leave us wanting just to give up and stop caring and we become too casual on this side and sometimes our bruises and our hurts leave us feeling very cynical and we just focus on the negatives on ourselves and on other people and this is all the mess that sin causes and all the difficulty that sin causes us in our lives and we all fall into these traps that's the first key point that applies to all of them the second key point and this is what I want to focus on is that all of these things all of these six examples are very different but they are all caused by the same thing they're all caused by not enough grace but at the heart of the gospel is the fact that where sin abounds grace abounds even more therefore in all of these areas that we all struggle in if we understand the gospel accurately then all of these issues are solved by a flood of grace through our

[40:20] Lord Jesus Christ and so I just want to think a little bit about that together for each of these six areas and we're going to whiz through them very very very fast so two critical we're all prone to that it happens in a thousand ways someone parks badly at Tesco's we instantly declare that they're idiots somebody mucks up a task at work we kind of roll our eyes in frustration somebody gets a nicer car than we do we tut at their extravagance an older generation struggles with change younger ones think they're backward younger generation excited about change older ones think that they're reckless another church grows more than ours does we think oh what's going on there we're a bit sceptical another denomination does things differently from us we see them as rivals in so many ways a thousand ways we can be critical of family colleagues neighbours churches we do it all the time why do we do it we do it because we don't have enough grace we don't have enough grace we're not willing to accept that things things can be inconvenient things can be a pain and we can easily easily easily just jump on the opportunity to be critical of others you see this if you ever want it's funny the biblical doctrine of sin is just the easiest thing in the world to prove because everything that I'm describing here you can go onto facebook tonight and you'll find it you see someone packs badly and start away people put it online and criticise it somebody will make a mistake straight online somebody

[41:59] I don't know it seems to be cars that captures it that seems to stir this up more and more but you know exactly what I mean it's just that critical spirit everywhere people zoom on their faults of others and they love to just shine a spotlight on people's mistakes grace refuses to do that and this is where we see how utterly magnificent God is because you just think of how much God could criticise us if you look at Romans you go through chapters 1 2 and 3 of Romans there's just this amazing argument that Paul builds up where you go through the second half of 1 into 2 into 3 he's building up a massive case against the Jews and the Gentiles it comes into the big culmination in chapter 3 where Paul says there is no one righteous nobody absolutely nobody matches up to my standard everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

[43:02] God could just he's got this absolutely undeniable case against humanity that we're all sinners he has a million and one reasons to criticise us he has a million and one reasons to walk away from us and he doesn't do it instead he responds with a flood of grace and you see that so magnificently in verses 7 to 8 scarcely will someone die for a righteous man but maybe for a good man someone would even dare to die but God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us God's response to our massive list of mistakes is a flood of grace and that is just that's just amazing and so comforting and so so so so reassuring we are often tempted our society so often gravitates towards a critical mindset that is the opposite of how

[44:11] God thinks and so we want to be filled with a grace shaped mindset one that recognizes that when we see some of these mistakes in their lives we don't know the whole story and we want to see past the inconvenience that they've maybe caused us and instead we want to flood grace and so if someone is a pain this week think about grace if you're tempted to be critical think about grace if somebody parts badly just respond with grace a critical spirit comes from not enough grace second example is where we're too casual this is a really interesting one to think about because sometimes people might say well maybe this is a problem that's caused by too much grace because this is a problem that the Christian church has faced for a long time ever since the days of the Romans where people have thought okay I am forgiven I'm a sinner I'm forgiven by Jesus because of his grace that grace is a gift it's not something that

[45:12] I've earned and it means that all my sins are washed away so that means I can go and do whatever I like and some people think that some people make that connection to think well grace means I can just do whatever I like the technical term we use that is the word antinomianism where you're basically saying well because we're forgiven we don't need any law in our lives we can do whatever we like and we think well that's because you've got too much grace in your theology but that's not true this issue is actually caused by not enough grace and it's interesting this was a problem that faced these Roman Christians that first half part of chapter six that we read what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound that's the idea shall we carry on sinning just so there can be more grace Paul says no absolutely not because that antinomian mindset comes from a very pure inaccurate understanding of grace because the idea that grace is just a free pass to go and do what we like and it'll be fine in the end is is is a completely inaccurate way of understanding the gospel because it's a failure to recognise just how much

[46:26] God wants to give us because in other words it's a failure to recognise just how big grace is because God comes to us and he heals us he restores us and he forgives us but he doesn't do that just to give us a free pass to go and throw ourselves back into the mud of sin he does that because he wants to give us more than just a free pass for a life for a life of no eternal consequences God wants to give us more than that he wants to give us newness of life he wants to give us fullness of life and here's I don't know if this is a helpful example or not this afternoon I went for a walk to the pier in Carloway with my dog and the dog found something disgusting on the pier and rolled in it and it was absolutely honking and so the dog thought that this was a great idea and and and yet she came back to us and we're like oh you can't come near us because she stank it was just disgusting and I think that's an example of you know if you think oh you know

[47:50] I can do what I like I can throw myself into this muck of sin you think oh it's a great idea my dog thought it was a great idea it left her stinking and no one wanted to come near her that's a bit of an extreme example but but but that's what sin does to us we think oh this is a great idea we throw ourselves into it and yet it leaves a stench of sorrow and regret and hurt in our lives and God God wants wants more for us than simply just to keep on washing us clean he wants to give us the wisdom to say don't throw yourself in that mud in the first place turn and follow me and we only understand this clearly if we see and recognise that sin will always leave you empty and if we're too casual about sin if we think sin's not a big deal then we need more grace to see that sin is poison and what

[48:50] Jesus wants for you is always always better and so please remember that when we are tempted to be casual about sin we need the grace to recognise that actually Jesus is calling us to a better path and he gives us the grace to follow that path we are no longer slaves to sin instead we can walk in newness of life we're also prone to be too negative that could be too about I don't know the weather the government the economy schools berries the media it's all a source of frustration and the gospel is not calling us to pretend that these things aren't a problem the opposite is true the gospel always calls us to rightly call out injustice poverty inequality but that doesn't mean that we need to be miserable or negative or grumpy and that's definitely true in regard to the work of the gospel and so yes we face many many challenges in the church today there's lots of ways in which we can maybe look back to eras in our own past where things seem better and stronger and there is so much that we need to do to take the gospel forward just now but if we respond to all of that with negativity then there's not enough grace in our mindset because the gospel the good news of

[50:22] Jesus Christ the good news that we have salvation in him is just utterly brilliant news and we never have a reason to be negative and ultimately negativity is a failure to recognise the magnitude of everything that God has done for us and Romans the book of Romans is really the go to place to tell you about that it is describing to you the fullness of the privileges and the joy that we have in the gospel so Romans is going to tell you everything that God has done for you and it's going to remind you of everything that God can and still will do in and through you so we ask the question will this church grow not enough grace says no will new people come to faith not enough grace says no will we get a new minister not enough grace says no will we see a new generation rise up to teach a generation yet unborn about Jesus not enough grace says no grace says yes yes yes yes yes the gospel is the power of

[51:33] God unto salvation when we are tempted to feel negative we need to think about grace and the extraordinary power that God is pouring out in his abundant grace so grace is the antidote to when we feel too critical too casual too negative grace is the great antidote for everything that as sin tries to push us along grace is the antidote to enable us to turn around but grace is also the antidote to everything on this side so when we feel too unworthy grace is what we need to remember and this is something that all of us struggle with and that might be for you in terms of potentially becoming a Christian you might be thinking I'm not good enough I'm not worthy it might be to do with coming to the prayer meeting maybe there's somebody in here thinking about coming on Thursday and you think I'm not where I need to be I can't do it it might be about coming to the

[52:33] Lord's table maybe there's somebody even here thinking about preaching one day I can't do it I spent ten years thinking like that so often we're crippled by the feeling that we're not good enough and yet if those feelings are preventing you from taking your next step as a follower of Jesus it's yet another example of not enough grace because these feelings of unworthiness are the fruit of a mindset that actually thinks that we need to earn our worth before God and that's a huge problem that we face if we think that unworthiness is a barrier it means that underneath that is the idea that we think that we're actually making ourselves worthy enough is the answer and of course it's not our relationship with Jesus is never ever earned verses 15 and 16 make that so clear it's a free gift the gospel is a free gift so often we feel like our failings and our inadequacies are disqualifying us from coming to

[53:44] Jesus disqualifying us from serving Jesus and disqualifying us from being loved by Jesus we can look at ourselves and we feel like our failures are too powerful but it's so important that you need to recognize that in the battle between your sin and God's grace grace is always bigger grace is always stronger grace is always more persistent grace is always more steadfast grace is always more enduring it's so important to remember that Jesus is more stubborn than you now I mean that in a sanctified holy way that Jesus is more stubborn than you in the sense that at the heart of the gospel is a holy stubbornness and a steadfast relentless resilience on the part of God that he has committed to love you and restore you to work in you and through you and to use you and he is never ever ever ever going to give up so yes our unworthiness is real it's absolutely real the gospel recognizes it but the gospel addresses it and we can make two massive mistakes we can make the mistake of thinking that our unworthiness is nothing where we play down the reality of sin and we think oh well

[55:08] I'll be fine in the end it's easy to think like that but I don't I'm pretty sure nobody endures thinking like that I hope no one endures thinking like that but I think it's much more likely that some of you are thinking my unworthiness is everything it's too much it's the final word it's a stumbling block that I can never get past if you feel like that it's because of not enough grace grace presumes unworthiness the very definition of grace is that we don't deserve it and this is so important to remember because if you get your definition of grace wrong then you're going to misunderstand the whole gospel what would you say to me if I said to you I only ever go to a restaurant when I'm completely full and I'm only ever going to go to school once I've learnt everything and I'm only ever going to go to the doctor when I'm feeling perfect and I'm only ever going to go to the garage when my car is working perfectly what would you say to me you say very quick and so when you say

[56:11] I can't follow Jesus I can't profess faith I can't come to the Lord's table because I'm not worthy enough I don't know enough and I'm not good enough come on this is what it's about it presumes all of that Jesus says that's exactly how I want you to come so if you're struggling with feeling unworthy think about grace that grace is abundant it's a flood that God is pouring out in the same way we feel too weak and so all of us whatever stage would happen in our journey of faith it's so easy to feel overwhelmed by our sense of weakness and then look at what Paul says in verse 6 of chapter 5 for Christ Christ died for us now that verse 6 is such an important verse there is so much theology in that verse so it speaks about the human condition because it talks about the ungodly at the end it speaks about the atonement

[57:18] Christ dying for those who needed salvation it speaks about redemptive history this all happened at due time, at the perfect moment, in God's great plan of salvation, outworked across the ages of history, and all of that was while we were yet without strength.

[57:37] In other words, the whole gospel, the whole of redemptive history, it presumes our weakness. In other words, God never, ever, ever expects you to be strong on your own.

[57:54] He never expects that. Instead, he pours out his grace, and his grace is sufficient in our weakness. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. If you are crippled by feelings of weakness this week, think about grace.

[58:11] And then last of all, what about if you feel too hurt? And as I said earlier on, this is maybe the most powerful one of all. In our lives as disciples, even if you're not yet efficient or not sure, whether you're thinking about taking that first step to follow Jesus, or whether you've been following Jesus for a long time, or early on in your faith, if there's one thing that is maybe the most effective thing at stopping us in our attacks, it's getting hurt.

[58:42] It's when things happen to us that just just knock us. And spiritual injuries are just like physical injuries. If you're running, if you're running in a football match, and you pull a muscle, it stops you in your tracks.

[59:01] You've got to come off, you're done. Spiritual injuries are just the same. It stops you in your tracks. And so when your heart gets bruised, you just feel like you can't go on.

[59:16] And you see it again and again. I know, I've seen so many people, and you'll be the same, I've seen people who won't even try coming to church because they've been hurt. I've seen people who maybe once did come to church, but now they've stopped because they've been hurt.

[59:32] I've seen people who don't want to follow Jesus, don't want to think about following Jesus because they've been hurt by somebody professing to be a Christian. I see Christians who are reluctant to let anybody get close to them because they've been hurt.

[59:45] And I see Christians who most of the time are sad because they've been hurt. And these bruises are very real, and they are very painful and very, very hard.

[59:59] But the reason that these bruises remain as bruises is because of not enough grace. And that's the key point I want us to think about here, is the fact that grace heals spiritual bruises.

[60:17] And that works in two ways. First of all, in order for us to heal, we need to receive God's grace anew. And that's one of the most important things.

[60:28] When you come to church on a Sunday, you're coming to a means of grace. And you're coming to be reminded and to be refreshed and to be recharged in the gospel.

[60:39] And for the truth of the gospel to wash over you again so that you can be reminded of God's love and commitment and goodness towards you.

[60:50] You can be nourished and healed and helped and built up. And so you can come and be a recipient of God's grace anew every week. So you can start a new week thinking, actually, Jesus has forgiven me and actually everything is going to be okay and actually he is with me even though I've forgotten that loads of times in this past week.

[61:09] We come together at church for that means of grace to be channeled, for it to be a channel whereby we can receive God's kindness to us anew. So in order to, we need that to heal.

[61:20] We need that to heal us and restore us as we get bruised and battered in life. So we need to receive God's grace to heal. But secondly, and this is so important, in order for bruises to heal, we also need to show God's grace.

[61:34] In other words, we need to be ready to forgive. Now it's so important to say that that doesn't mean glossing over the hurts that we've experienced. Grace never means pretending that wrongs aren't wrongs.

[61:47] In fact, grace is grounded in the recognition that wrongs are wrongs because it recognises that what's been given is not fair.

[61:59] But at the same time, it also recognises that what's given is not earned. And actually, you're giving something to somebody who doesn't deserve it.

[62:12] And so grace towards the person who's hurt you, and maybe there is somebody who's hurt you in this past week, or maybe there's somebody who's hurt you years ago. grace towards that person doesn't mean pretending that they didn't hurt you.

[62:27] It means no longer allowing that to imprison you. It means no longer viewing that person through the lens of the pain that they've caused. It means recognising that there's always a bigger story, and ultimately God is the one who'll sort it out.

[62:41] And it means recognising that we can leave things with him. We can move on. We can heal. And our relationship will be restored. And this is the crucial thing to remember, that if you've been hurt, not enough grace, a refusal to show grace, it doesn't get them back.

[63:00] It just keeps you bruised. Showing grace doesn't necessarily heal them, but it will heal you.

[63:12] So when your bruises are sore, think about grace. Now, the time's run out. I'm almost done. All of this is just showing us that it's very, very easy for our lives to be shaped by a mindset of not enough grace.

[63:31] And when that happens, it will spoil our lives. And wherever we are at on our journey of faith, sin can feel so strong and so powerful.

[63:42] It can be the wind in our sails pushing us along towards all sorts of unhelpful mindsets and it can be the storm in our face beating us down and hurting us. But the whole point that Paul wants to press home in these chapters is the fact that if you are a Christian or if you become one, sin no longer reigns over you.

[64:01] Sin is no longer in charge. Sin has been conquered. Grace reigns. grace. And the amazing thing about grace is that it replaces a storm with sunshine meeting us at every point of need, every worry, every insecurity, every weakness, every doubt, every fear.

[64:23] And grace blows us in a much better direction. It makes us an amazing blessing to others. And so maybe, you know, the last question some of you or all of you are asking is, well, how do I find grace?

[64:41] Well, the amazing thing that's been emphasised here is that grace is not rare. Grace is not scarce. It's not hidden.

[64:54] It is abounding. And if you want to know how abounding grace is, what do you do? How do you calculate how abounding grace is in your life?

[65:09] Well, this is maybe going to sound like a silly thing or a strange thing for me to say, but you need to count up sin. So count up sin in your life.

[65:21] Count up sin in the lives of people around you. Count up all the rubbish things that have happened to you. Count up all the regrets that you feel. Count up all the ways in which you feel that you've made a mistake.

[65:33] Count up all the ways in which you feel unworthy. Count up all the ways in which you wish things were different. How much sin is there? A lot. That's your starting point for measuring grace.

[65:46] Because however much sin you can count, grace abounds more. grace abounds more.

[66:00] grace abounds more. And so please, as you go into this week, if things go wrong or if things are hard, and if that feels like a big pile of rubbishness in your life, please remember that the fountain of grace from God is bigger.

[66:20] And if you're sitting here tonight thinking, there's no way I can be a Christian, there's no way I can be good enough, there's no way God will accept me because my sins are too plentiful. My sins are just a heap that I can never get past.

[66:34] That heap is just obliterated by the waterfall of God's grace that will never run dry, that abounds all the more.

[66:45] Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

[66:59] May that amazing reality shape every part of our lives. Amen. We're going to close with Psalm 103 and we're going to sing from verse 8 to verse 12 which just capture everything that I've been trying to say tonight.

[67:24] Psalm 103 verse 8 The Lord our God is merciful and he's gracious long-suffering and slow to wrath in mercy plenteous.

[67:36] Singing down to verse 12 As far as east is distant from the west so far hath he from us removed in his love all our iniquity. Verse 11 is also a brilliant verse just to sing us Heaven in its height the earth surmounted but are so great to those that do fear his tender mercies are.

[67:53] That's just a description of grace and we have an advantage when David wrote that psalm he looked up to the sky and he thought it's a long way away and the wonderful discoveries of astrophysics really is.

[68:15] So 103 8 to 12 to God's praise. The Lord of God is merciful and he is gracious to us long suffering and slow to us in mercy plentious He will not chide continually nor be peace and care still with us be guilt not as we sinned nor did we quite ever ill for us the heaven in its height the earth sermented far so!

[69:46] to those that in fear its tender mercy sound!

[69:58] sea sound! As far as its distance drop west so far can be!

[70:14] so can be promised He in his all out in equity!

[70:33]  as as into a new may the our Lord Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all Amen Amen