GRACE GOT ME HERE | GOD'S HOUSE

0:00 Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Well, happy birthday, God's house. I'm so thankful that you're Come on. Can we just take one more moment um to give God some real praise in the house? I'm talking about I just feel like we owe God some praise today. I'm talking about like some off Yeah. Stay with me. Stay with me. Some some like ugly crying praise. You know those moments where you're just like you got mascara running down your face. Come on. Foot stomping kind of praise. Um, I just I just think he's worthy. I just think he's worthy, church. Um, man, in four years, we've seen families restored. We've seen marriages healed. Uh, we've seen real life addictions broken. We've seen cancer healed in the name of Jesus. Um, we we've seen

0:48 countless babies be born through this house. Come on, somebody. We've seen all kinds of businesses be born through this house. Man, God is so good. God is so faithful. We've seen thousands of salvations in this house. Um I just want to say to every every person in the room today, every volunteer, every servant leader, uh to every team member, every giver, every everyone who's ever walked through those doors or watched online, I just want to say thank you uh from the bottom of my heart. I say it every week, but it is truly a privilege to be able to stand up here and and bring a word of God. And uh the fact that you keep showing up is is proof of God's grace because I ain't that good. But God is faithful and God is good. I want to say welcome to every first-time guest in the house today. I want to say

1:34 welcome to every returning family uh member today. Especially uh the friends and loved ones who showed up today uh to watch your your loved one be baptized today. I'm so thankful that you're in the room. Today is not just a service. Today is a celebration. That's right. Um, I want to take a moment and I want you to just look around the room. Take it all in. No one's looking around the room. All right, let's try that again. I want to take a moment. I want you to just look around the room. Take it all in. Take in the people. Take in the sound. Because the truth is, four years ago, this didn't exist. There was no stage. There was no lights. There was no worship team. There was no production. There was no coffee. There was no connect groups. There was no girls house. There was none of this. Um,

2:21 there was a parking lot. We didn't get here because we had the perfect strategy. We didn't get here because we had the perfect people. God knows that's not true. We didn't get here because we have the best systems. We We got here because God is faithful and because grace is real. That's right. I need you to if there's anything you take away from today's service, I need you to take away those two things. God is faithful and grace is real. Grace is real. We didn't get here um because I'm that great. We This This house is not built on talent. This house is built on the presence of God.

3:07 And this is not the result of human effort. This is the evidence of God's grace today. If if you're looking for a reason to believe, look around. If you're looking for a reason to believe, ask some people and hear their story. Ask some people what they've been through. Ask Ask some people some of the mistakes that they've made. Some of the storms and the battles that they've fought and yet God still uses them. And yet God still blesses them. And and yet God still works through them. Come on. That's how good our God is. This is grace at work. This is what it looks like when God breathes on something. This is what it looks like when when heaven decides and goes, I'm going to build something right here. I'm going to use these people. I'm going to bless these people. Um, man, man, God is good. You didn't walk into a man-made

3:53 moment today. You walked into a God- ordained one. And so, I don't know what your week looked like. I don't know if you know, you came here for the coffee. I don't know if you thought you were coming to breakfast and they turned in this parking lot. I don't know how you showed up today, but but you're here for a reason. Um, This house, as I just reflect, this house is not built on human effort. Yes, we gave. Yes, we prayed. Yes, we worked hard. Um, yes, we we tried our best to steward well. Um, but the truth is we we we could have quit a long time ago. We could have gave up under the weight of year one, under the pressure of year two. Um, but look at us now. We're still

4:39 here. For those of us said we'd never make it, look at God. For those of us just said, "We're just a young Instagram church." Come on, look at God. For those of us that he never even went to seminary, now look at God. Look at God. Let me make it personal for you today. Look at your life. Look at your family. The fact that you're sitting in this room today, the fact that you're still breathing, the fact that you're still believing, the fact that you still have breath in your lungs is not just effort, it's evidence that God's grace is real, that God's grace has been working in your life your whole life. And so today, before we we celebrate baptisms, before I I preach

5:25 this sermon, before we shout and get all crazy, although we already have, I just I just don't want you to miss the miracle that we're sitting in right now. Yeah, this is this is not just a service. This is a a sanctuary of God's grace. Today is is not just an anniversary, but today is also a day of new beginnings. Come on, many people in the house today. This is your spiritual birthday. This is a day that you will never forget. It's it's a fruit of the grace of God. Being baptized today is not about perfection. Being baptized today is about transformation. And by the way, it's not the end of your story. It's just the beginning of your story. And so whether it's your first Sunday here, whether you're visiting, whether you've been here since the OG parking lot,

6:11 come on. Since launch team, um this moment right here is worth stopping for, worth praising God for because this is what the kingdom of God is all about. Amen. And see here, here's just the truth that I need us all to know right now is is something we all have in common. Um none of us deserve any of this. Not the blessing, not the breakthrough, not the breath in our lungs, but but what makes this day so powerful is it's not about what we have done. It's all about what God did for us. Ephesians chapter 2:8 says it this way. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God,

6:57 not by works, so that no one can boast. Oh, aren't you thankful for the grace of God? Titus 3:5 says it this way. He saved us. Watch this. Not because of the righteous things that we have done, but because of his mercy, he washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. Come. Oh, I'm thankful that it's not because of the good things we have done. It's not because we've built this church. It's not because of the the the the outreach efforts. Oh, no, friends. It is not because of any of that. It is because of the grace and mercy of God. See, grace is the unearned, undeserved,

7:42 unlimited kindness and favor of God. That's right. Grace is is God giving you what you don't deserve. God gave you another chance when you didn't even deserve a second one. Come on. God opened up a door when when you couldn't even unlock the first one. God covered you when you couldn't cover yourself. Come on. Grace is is not the reward of being righteous. Grace is a rescue for every person that's ever been broken. Come on. If if mercy is God giving you what you don't deserve, then grace is God giving you the blessing that you don't deserve either. I I want to preach today from this title if you're taking notes today. Grace got me here. Grace. Come on, just close your

8:28 eyes. Put your hands over your heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for grace. Thank you that we're we're not saved by our works, our titles, our talents, our appearance, but by your mercy, by your grace. God, thank you for every person being baptized today. For every person who walked through the doors of this church, not even sure if they belong, God, thank you that grace brought them here. God, we open up our hearts today to receive your word. God, would you teach us? Would you convict us? Would you encourage us? God, help us to never forget This was never about us, God. It's always been about you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. And amen. Now, listen. Um

9:17 you might be asking, why are we talking about grace today? Why are we talking about grace today? Uh well, because the truth is, if you stripped it all back, the lights, the the cameras, the the stage, the name on the building. Um the only reason any of this exists is because of the grace of God. Grace is the reason this church started. Grace is the reason that baptisms are happening today. Grace is the reason that you're still breathing. Grace is the reason that you're still believing. Grace is the reason that you're still fighting. Grace is the common thread in every story that's being written in this room today. By the way, um and today I want to I want to show you how grace has worked in our life and and how it is going to continue to work in our life. And so I want to give you four things that grace does very very quickly. Then we're going to put some people down in that water. I'm excited. I'm excited.

10:03 Uh, but here's my first point. I want you to write this down because I know everyone's taking notes. You're so prepared and ready to see what God's going to do in your life. And you're going to pull out your notes later in this week and just like, "Holy Spirit, remind me of what you spoke on Sunday." So, I can I can see everyone taking notes. Grace found me first. That's the first point today. Grace found me first. Grace found me first. Uh, Romans 5:8 says it this way. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, come on somebody, this is good news. while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This means that he didn't die for you when you came to church. This means he didn't die for you when you decided to show up. This means that he didn't die for you when you decided to start acting like a Christian. This means that he didn't die for you when you decided to, you know, stop doing all those sinful behaviors.

10:48 While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you. This is good news. Come on. This is the grace of God. Yeah. See, most of us, a lot of us say, you know, when I found God, see, you didn't find God. God found you. You didn't find God when you showed up to church. You didn't find God when you saw your favorite Instagram preacher on your on on your timeline. No, God found you. God was never hiding from you. You were hiding from him. But the truth is, he's been pursuing you your whole life. And and the beauty of grace is this. God didn't wait for you to get it all together before he showed up in your life. Come on. You know how you get all ready in the morning? Most of you guys, because you want to present yourself

11:34 well in front of those who you're about to have an encounter with. God didn't wait for you to put on your mascara and your fake eyelashes, ladies. Go God didn't wait for you to get a haircut and a good lineup. Men be smelling all good. He He came to you and he rescued you. While you were broken, while you were hurting, while you were lost, while you were out eating with the pigs, Christ died for you. Come on. This is the grace of God. Come on. Grace found us first. While we were even not even looking for grace, why we weren't even interested in God, Christ died for you. Come on. I know this is true for my life. Hopefully, it's the same for your life. But, but I didn't think that I would I would grow up and be a pastor.

12:20 I I didn't I didn't have dreams of pastoring a church one day. But while I was out doing my own thing, while I was out building something that would never sustain me, while I was out living in the world, grace found me. Come on. While you were out doing your own thing and and living your own life and and doing what what you wanted to do, grace found you. Not when you had it all together. Come on. This is this is good news. And by the way, this is a consistent pattern all throughout scripture that while people are out doing their own thing while Moses was out wandering in the wilderness. Moses was not out looking for a burning bush, the burning bush just showed up and said, "Take off your shoes. This is a holy this is holy ground. I got something for you." Come on. Grace found

13:05 Moses. Grace found you. Think about Saul, the Apostle Paul. before he was an apostle, he was he was out killing Christians. He was out trying to stop the move of God. He was on a road called Damascus, kind of like Bear Valley, real dusty and nasty, just doing his thing. And grace showed up and knocked him. Grace showed up and blinded him. Grace showed up and gave him a future. Grace showed up and healed him. Grace showed up and blessed him. Come on, that's the testimony of your life, whether you know it or not. Think about the woman at the well. Come on. She was just trying to go fetch some water. She wasn't at a revival. She wasn't in a connect group. She didn't stumble her way into church. She was going to the well in the hottest part of the day so

13:51 no one would see her so she can hide in all her shame while she was still living in sin. She didn't know. She She just thought she was going to fetch some water. But grace showed up and found her. Grace showed up and set her free. Grace showed up and healed her. Grace showed up and and not just blessed her life, but changed her whole city's life. That's the testimony of this church. Oh, while we were out doing our thing, while we were out wowing. Come on. I I see your Instagram stories. I I know how y'all be acting. Don't act like you're all holy up in this place. Come on. We were out living a whole another way. But grace showed up and put a vision, put a put a burden on on our hearts to start a move of God in in in the high desert. And look at God. Look at God. Come on. grace found us first. This is good news. Th this is the blessing of God. And if

14:38 he did it for all of those people in scripture, guess what? He can still do it for you. Come on. The same grace that chased Moses down in the wilderness, the same grace that showed up at the well, the same grace that showed up in Damascus is the same grace that's here for you right now. Come on. God wants to bless you and keep you all the days of your lives. Grace is God giving you the undeserved favor and blessing of God. Oh, you don't deserve it. And we can't even earn it. There's nothing we can do. We can't sing enough Christian karaoke to earn the grace of God. We can't serve enough people out in our community to earn the grace of God. We can't give away enough money to earn the grace of God. Come on. It is a gift given to us by God. Here's my second point. If grace found me first, then then grace also held me together. Come

15:25 on. Grace held me together. Together. Watch this. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says it this way. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness." See, grace doesn't just find you at your worst. Grace sustains you through it all. Come on. Is anybody grateful that grace didn't dip out on you at your lowest moments? Come on. That grace didn't run away from you when you made that big mistake. Come on. Grace isn't just what saves you. Grace is what sustains you. Come on. Let's be honest. Most of us should have lost our minds a long time ago. Come on. Most of us should have lost our marriages a long time ago. Most of us should should be in jail if

16:11 we acted on every thought we've ever had. But grace has sustained us and grace has helped us make us through it all. Come on. You didn't bounce back because you were strong. You you didn't fight back because you you girl power. No. That is the grace of God. Your your business is not blessed because you're smart. You're not that good, bro. That's the grace of God. That's the blessing of God. That's the favor of God. Come on. You didn't survive that thing because you were so tough. That's the grace of God. Come on. Grace held you when people left you. Grace held you when that job fell through. Grace held you through that court case. Grace held you through that divorce. Grace held you through that miracle moment. Grace held you when those tears were falling down that nobody can see. Come on, some of you,

16:57 grace has got a grip on your life and refuses to let go. You know you shouldn't be here. You know you shouldn't have all the things that you have. You know that you shouldn't run that ministry. You know you shouldn't have that family. You know you shouldn't have that job. But God's grace has been on your life your whole life. Come on. Grace got me here. God said, "My grace is sufficient for you." That means God's grace is capable of holding everything together at all times in all of your brokenness. God's grace is sufficient. That place where you feel the weakest. Oh, that's where God's grace wants to shine the brightest. See, see, when you're weak, that's when God's grace fills the gap. See, when you don't have the right words to say to that teenager, come on. That's where God's grace fills the gap.

17:44 Come on. When you're trying to forgive that person, but the pain is still so real, that's where grace fills the gap. Come on. When you're showing up to church and you're still depressed, that's where grace fills the gap. When you're trying to serve and love and lead your family, but you don't got the right words to say, that's where grace fills the gap. Come on. Grace sustains you. Grace blesses you. Think about Joseph in the Bible. Joseph was betrayed by his own family. Joseph was accused of crimes that he didn't commit. Joseph was forgotten about by the people that that loved him the most. But God's grace was on his life. The Bible says that while he was in prison, the favor of God fell onto the prison warden and allowed favor to fall on the

18:31 Joseph. Genesis 39:21, the Lord was with him. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. See, some of you guys right now, come on. The only reason you're at where you're at is because God has found favor with you. That's the grace of God on your life. When he opened up doors that you shouldn't be walking through, that's the grace of God. That's the grace of God. Think about David in the Bible. David didn't just fight giants. David fought guilt. David was a murderer. David was an adulterer. David covered up his crimes. And yet, God still used him. God still blessed him. David still fulfilled his purpose. David still wore the crown. David still is in the lineage of the Messiah. That's the grace of God.

19:18 David said in Psalm 51, "Put in me a clean heart, oh God. Give me a clean, give me a pure heart, oh God." See, this is the this is the key right here. Not that grace is a get out of jail free card, get out of sin free card. It's give me a clean heart, oh God. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your mercy, God. Thank you for using me when I I I feel like I'm unusable. God, thank you for giving me worth while while I feel like I'm worthless. God, I just made all these mistakes, but yet you still choose to love me. That's the grace of God. That's the blessing of God. Think about Peter. Peter denied Jesus three times in the most critical hour. And yet Jesus shows up and restores him. And yet the Holy Spirit comes and fills them and he preaches and 3,000 people

20:04 get saved on the first day of the church. That's the grace of God. You want to know how we made it through year one of God's house? The grace of God. You want to know how we deal with crazy people? The grace of God. Come on. Grace is holding this church together. When we needed people, the grace of God showed up. When we needed leaders, when we felt alone, the grace of God showed up. When the math didn't make any sense, the grace of God showed up. That's right. Come on. When when the enemy was trying

20:50 to hit hard at home, come on. The grace of God showed up. And if grace held us together for all these years, and if grace is holding this house together for all these years, then he's going to continue to hold this house together for for many more years to come. And if if God's grace can sustain this house, then God's grace can sustain your house. Don't you give up. Don't you quit now. God's grace is too good. God's house is a testimony of the grace of God. So, if grace found you when you were lost and grace held you together when you were weak, then here's my third point. Grace isn't finished with you yet. Come on. Grace isn't finished with you yet. This is not the end of your story. This is not the best it's going to be. This is not the last chapter of your

21:36 family. God's not done and neither is his grace. Watch this. Philippians chapter 1 vers 6. being confident of this that he who began a good work. Come on. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. He who began will complete. That's a promise of God. He who began something in you will complete it. God didn't start this church to let it flatline and fall off at four years. Come on. He who began will complete it. Come on. Grace doesn't just find us where we at. It takes us into the future. Come on. Grace didn't get you this far just to leave you right here where you're at. Come on. God is still working. God still has things ahead for you. And grace will will be there with you to get you through every battle, through every trial, through every

22:22 heartbreak, through every setback. Come on. The grace of God is real. Where's my worship team? Come join me. You're not a finished product, by the way. God still has many things ahead for your life. That's good news. That God didn't get you this far just to leave you here. Because grace doesn't leave things half done. No, God God will start something and God will complete it. I I believe God is still refining you. I I believe God is still healing you. Come on. This is a prophetic word for some people in the house today. God is restoring some things in your life right now. God is redeeming some things that the enemy has tried to steal from you today.

23:07 Come on. God is calling you to a brighter hope, to a a better future. Come on. God is calling you to more and to more. God is calling you to greater and to greater. Yes. Come on. This is good news for the house today. And here's what I know to be true. Just because you're in process does not mean you're not in purpose. Just because you're not quite yet where you want to be doesn't mean that you're not on the right track. Don't let the enemy lie to you. Don't let the enemy rob you of your joy. Don't let the enemy rob you of your picture of your progress. Come on. You know, like when you're when you're trying to lose weight and you just check the the scale every day and you're like, "I didn't lose weight." But come on. Don't let the enemy rob you of the progress that you're making. Come on. In due time, in due season, you will reap a harvest. Come on. God is still working.

23:54 You just might be under construction. You're still in process. You're still in progress. Come on. Four years ago, we didn't have all the answers. We still don't. We we we didn't have perfect systems when we started. We still don't. We didn't even know what God was going to do. We still don't. Our job is just be obedient to whatever God has for us. But we we did know something that God started something in us. And if God started something in us, he's going to finish it. Let me just say this today. We're not peaking at four years. We're not about to come down the back half of the life of this church. We're

24:39 just getting started. There are more people to reach. There are more families to restore. There are more young leaders to raise up. There are more cities to impact. There there is more freedom to be released. There God didn't bring us this far to stop now. We're still under construction. We're still building. We're still growing. If you look at your life right now and you say, "Pastor, my life is my life is a mess right now. My my life there's there's some there's some broken places in my life right now. There there's some areas of my life that are not healed or not put together, kind of chaotic, feel feel incomplete. That's okay. The grace of God is still with you. You're just you're just under

25:24 construction. You're just be Maybe when people come up to you and say, "Oh, you're a Christian. Oh, you think you're better than us now? Man, I see all the holes in your life. You're still making mistakes. You're still sinning. You're still falling short." You just tell them, "I'm under construction. I'm being built, but God still wants to use me, and God can still bless me, and God can still heal me, and God can still speak through me. I'm just under construction. You need a sign. Well, it might be this little thing floating down right there. Or or maybe a sign. Maybe you should buy one of these this week and just walk around.

26:11 I'm under construction. See, when people talk about this church, that's okay. We're under construction. We're still being built. We're We're certainly not perfect. We certainly don't have it all together. Oh, you got baptized today. Yeah. I'm still under construction, though, man. God is moving in this house. God is moving in your family. But thank God for the grace of God. We're under construction. Come on. The people being baptized today, that's still the first wave of people. You hear what I said? Yeah. That's like 1,200 something that we've baptized in four years. That's still the first wave.

26:58 God's still moving. God's still healing. God's still blessing. Come on. I'm not who I was. You're not who you were. I'm not yet who I'll be. You're not either. But grace is still working in our life. Here's my last point. Grace is worth celebrating. Grace is worth celebrating. Come on. When you really understand what grace is, come on. When you really can just pause and reflect of what grace actually is, you cannot help but praise God. You cannot help but thank God. Come on. Not not just for what he did, but for what he's doing. You can't stay silent any longer because God's grace has been too good. Uh David said in Psalm 103, he said it this way. Praise the Lord, my soul. all my inmost

27:46 being. Praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul. And forget not all his benefits. Who forgives all your sins. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like eagles. David is saying, "Don't get too busy with life and forget all that grace has done in your life." So, you don't praise God because everything is perfect. You praise him because he's carried you through everything that hasn't been perfect. You praise him because you should have quit a long time ago. You praise him because you've been overlooked, but God still showed up. You

28:31 praise him because you've been in places that you're not supposed to be in, but God's graces got you there. Come on. Grace found you when you were lost. Grace held you when you didn't have it all together. And God's grace is still working in your life. Come on. God's grace is worth celebrating. God's grace is worth shouting about. God's graces worth crying over. God's graces were stomping your feet. God's graces were saying, "God, you're so good to me. God, you're so good to me. God, you're so good to me." Oh, if you got a praise in the house, give it to him. If you got a blessing in the house, give it to him. God's grace is worth celebrating. Thank you, Lord. Come on, you can stand to your feet. You can stand to your feet. I want to pray for every single person in the house today.

29:17 Oh, has God been good to you, church? God's certainly been good to me. God certainly been good to this house. You say, "Pastor, when the baptisms, Hold up. Wait a minute. We got all day. It's your birthday party. Relax. We're here to celebrate. Let me pray for you. If you love the one or like the one next to you, grab their hand. If they're kind of creepy, don't even think about it. Just hold your own hand. It's all good. It's all good. Um, heavenly father, thank you for Thank you for meeting us today, God. Thank you for years of faithfulness. God, thank you for every soul that you've saved. God, thank you for every

30:03 person that you've healed. God, thank you for every storm that you've carried us through. God, we stand here today hand in hand, reminded that you're not done with us. We stand here as living proof that grace is real. God, thank you for finding us when we weren't even looking. God, thank you for holding us together when we were at our lowest. God, thank you for reminding us today that you're not finished with us yet. God, I pray over every person in this room today. For everyone who's weary, God, would you strengthen them? For everyone who's wandering, God, would you lead them home? For everyone who feels stuck today, God, would you breathe new momentum into their life?

30:50 For every person battling shame and guilt, God, would you let your grace wash over them today, God? Let this house be marked by grace. Let our lives reflect the beauty of your mercy, God. And let us walk into the next season full of faith, full of fire, full of expectation. In Jesus mighty name, we all said, "Amen." Amen. Amen. And amen. Hey, listen. Before you leave, before you leave, we have some folks here on our prayer team that would love to pray for you for any reason. We have a whole team waiting for every single person ready to get baptized today right outside on the lawn. And so if you're ready to get baptized, grab your kids, head straight out there. Come on. We're going to go down in that water and we're going to come up a brand new creation. I love you guys. God bless you

31:36 all. And I'll see y'all next week.