Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): God loves you.

Guest (Male): Hello friends. Welcome to Grace Talks, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelly. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelly.

Tim Kelley: How many of you know somebody or maybe yourself that has told a lie for so long they believed the lie? You've told the same story or you know somebody who has told the same story for so many years they actually believe it to be true and the whole thing is not even true or it's just maybe half true. Cuz if we tell ourselves the same thing over and over, we actually begin to believe it. Now think with me. Why don't we try that with truth? Why don't we tell ourselves truth over and over and over again?

I'm complete in Christ. I have the righteousness of Christ. I'm seated together with Christ in the heavenly places. Why don't I just blast myself with truth morning, noon and night? If I tell myself truth long enough, won't I start believing it? This is how I do battle. This is how we withstand. In Ephesians chapters 1, 2 and 3, we take these truths, we we rehearse these truths. I can't just look at the truths and say that's pretty. That's cool. No, I rehearse them. When the accusation comes, you failed again. Yeah, you did. But but Christ, I have your righteousness.

I'm I'm part of your family. I 'm seated together with the heavenly places. I 'm a work in progress and you know it, God, and I know it, too. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for naming me part of your family. Thank you for giving me of my sins. Thank you for the gift of rebound where I can get up and dust myself off and go on. God, thank you for these things. I'm rehearsing truth. Try rehearsing truth more than the lie and you'll begin to find incredible freedom and liberty. See, spiritual warfare, my friends, is subtle.

Your bed's probably not going to start shaking in the morning. You lay down and What's that? Oh, it's just a demon. You'll probably never be attacked by a possessed balloon. Probably. No guarantees. I was, but but but no guarantees. You probably won't ever see somebody whose head spins around, they spit green stuff at you. That probably will never happen to you. Is that spiritual warfare? Yeah. What happens if you see that? Run. Run. Cuz you know, my wife didn't help me when I was attacked, so I just if I could have ran, I would have ran.

So you run. No, spiritual warfare is going to be fought right here in the gray arena called your brain. It's a battle for your thoughts. And it says in Ephesians 4:27, neither give place to the devil. Now that's behaviorally? Yeah. But mentally? Yeah. Oswald Chambers says if you think a thought long for over 5 minutes, it becomes a mindset. In other words, I start dwelling on something over 5 5 minutes time, it becomes a lot more difficult for me to just cast that down. But the scriptures tell me to cast my cares upon Jesus Christ because he cares for me in 1 Peter 5:7.

And the picture there is a consistently a a consistent casting of my burdens on Jesus Christ as I as a burden comes in, I take it and I give it to God. As it comes in, I take it and give it to God. I don't hold on to them. According to Chambers, Oswald Chambers, not me, he said it, if I hang on to that burden for 5 minutes, that then it begins really being a burden. But if I can cast that burden as soon as it hits me cuz he cares for me. And the shoes of your feet and that shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

You need a good firm foundation, good footing. Same picture here that we have, same similar point here. I remember back in the 19 it was 1987 and we used to do the baseball chapel I see for the minor league teams here in St. Petersburg. And this particular we had the New York Mets. They were actually down with a back then they were down with the Rays are now it's where the Rays were here and that's where the Mets would do spring training. And we'd go into the locker room on Sunday mornings and do a chapel service with them and and preach to them and stuff like that.

This particular was a tough year because in 1986 the Mets beat the Red Sox in the World Series. And I had to go in their locker room and give them good news on 1987. Well, at this particular time we had one of the guys that came to the chapel and to the to the service and players were weren't mandated to come obviously, but the trainer came. He also was the trainer for the New York Giants. And and we were talking about the key. What's the key for these guys? And he said it's all in the footwear.

He goes we don't get the right footwear for these guys on the field, then they can't perform. He says especially in football. So so sometimes we'll change shoes three or four times in a game to refine those shoe or the cleat that works. You ever play football in sneakers and you plant your foot to take make a cut or something you you just fly. It's all on the footwear. So he says as for shoes shoes for your feet put on the having put on the readiness as having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace.

What is the gospel of peace? I think we've been talking about it already. Satan, my friends, hates the grace of God. He will always attack the grace of God cuz this is a gospel of peace. Not necessarily subjective peace, even though that follows. This is peace with God, Romans 5:2. I have a gospel of peace. I don't always have peace in life, but I always have peace with God. Sometimes I find my mind be agitated, but that doesn't change my peace with God. That 's positional. That's something the cross did for me. And when I said yes to the work of the cross, I have peace with God.

The war between me and God is over. There's no more enmity between us. I 'm a free man. That's the gospel. It's the gospel of peace. Satan hates grace. You know why he hates grace so bad? Because grace is unjust. Think of that with me. Grace isn't fair. It's the just for the unjust. It's God saying that I am adopted into the family of God, Tim Kelly, when I don't deserve to be. It's God saying I'm forgiven when I'm very sinful. It's God saying I'm perfect in his eyes when I'm anything but perfect in real life.

That's called grace. And what what can Satan attack? He likes he rather attack facts than than lies. He'll take the facts of my life and say Kelly, you're this and you're that and you're this and you're that. And I have to look at what he says that you you're right. You're right. And sometimes if I'm not as bad as other people, I can compare myself and that helps. But my answer isn't I'm going to try harder. My answer simply but I never said I was those things. I need grace. I have nothing without God's grace.

I can do nothing for myself. I can't save myself. I can't transform myself. I can't make myself anything other than what I am today. It's God working in me that does it all through what he's done for me on the cross. So Satan will come and accuse and what what I'm saying he uses the arena of the law. You fail here, you fail here, you fail here, you fail here. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. But God who is rich in mercy we're in he saved us. Colossians 1:20 through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on heaven or earth.

Watch this, making peace by the blood of his cross. What are we doing now? We're beginning to withstand. Here's the evil day. The evil day is the accusation against who I am in Christ. The evil day is the accusation against every promise in Ephesians 1, 2 and 3. The evil day is you'll never get out of this, you'll never change that situation, you'll never be better. But we have peace. He's reconciled all things in heaven and on earth making peace by the blood of his cross. So we're ready ready to withstand. Our feet are dug in.

2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3, but I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning watch this, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. We could even put that on the belt of truth. But as the serpent deceived Eve, as we talked a little earlier, by his cunning your thoughts that tells me if that's true then John 8:44 which says the devil is a a liar from the very beginning and murderer and a liar. He lies. But a lie is only good as my my ability to communicate it.

I can't lie in my mind about Andre. I have to communicate it. I have to communicate it to somebody. So we see here that the devil communicates. I don't know how. In the past I called it projections. It's good as any other term. In other words, he has some way of of a projecting a thought to the human race, doesn't he? Ever feel condemned? Ever wake up in the morning guilty when you I have. I'm thinking what am I guilty over? I was a really good husband like always. And and don't laugh. And and and I I didn't do anything I'm just guilty.

Where did that come from? Accuser of the brethren. He spoke to me and I can believe it or I can refuse it. I can rehearse it. I can take the truth and say no. I'm a child of God. No, I'm complete in Christ. No, I'm accepted in the beloved. Your your homework for this week is memorize Ephesians 1, 2 and 3. And I'm going to spontaneously pick you up from the from the congregation next week and make you recite it. Only kidding. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you cuz I'd forget it as soon as I memorize it.

See, the gospel of peace becomes a rebuttal to deceptive lies. And my friends, it's the only rebuttal. Faith is based on facts, my friends, not feelings. Feelings can change. I may not feel like I'm a child of God, but I am. I may not feel like God's for me, but he is. I may not feel like there's no condemnation, but there isn't. I may not feel like my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, but it is. Those are the facts. When Jesus Christ says it is finished he resurrected the third day and sat down on the right hand of the Father finishing the work.

It's interesting. I was reading in my one of my devotions this morning when Stephen just before Stephen died and he's about to enter into heaven, he looked up and saw Jesus standing. What happened between him sitting on the right hand of the Father and then standing to welcome Stephen home? He got off off his throne said one of my kids are coming home. I'm going to be standing here waiting for him to greet them when they come. That's what Stephen saw. Here's a quote. I put it on Facebook this week. If you're my Facebook friend, you already read it.

Just forget about it then. If you're not my Facebook friend why aren't you? First of all, says this. This is not the rest you promise, Lord. This really ministered to me when I read it early one morning last week. Nor will it ever be until I learn that a child does not earn its mother's love or live in a constant fear of losing it. The child finds contentment in the simple relationship itself. You are concerned with my being, not my doing. You are not as impressed with my regular church attendance as you are with my heart being a continual altar.

If you want me to be a light you want me to be a light, not strive to shine. You want me to be a disciple, not just act like one. It's a great quote. It takes it and and boils it down. God, this is all about relationship, isn't it? I know who I who I am and I know my weaknesses, but anyone else knows my weaknesses but you, Lord. I know where my feet are clay. I know where my battlefield is up my brain and sometimes with my body. But that doesn't change how you think of me.

My sin does not change how you think of me. My weakness does not change your thoughts. You accept me just the way that I am. And you take on the responsibility of making me more like your son Jesus Christ. My friends, when you start really believing that there is no warfare that you can't overcome. When the devil comes like like you on a like a flood say no, this is who I am and this is what Jesus did. And that's where I rest and that's where I stand.