Custom-Made

You are living in a certain location He has people that you are going to touch who wouldn’t be touched and blessed in any other way.


Scripture: Ephesians 1:2, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Colossians 2:6

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright? Well, it’s my joy to be with you, bless your heart and I’m so glad to be back with another few minutes in the Word of God. Turn with me if you will please to the book of Ephesians. We’re looking at that book for a few days, just sort of walking around in the garden of God’s words seeing what we can find there. We went through verse 1, Paul said, “He is an Apostle by the will of God”, remember I told you that the job you’re in is part of God’s will for you.

It’s not that just your enduring it until quitting and then you go do something religious, but everything you do all day long on your job, is part of God’s will for you. Whatsoever you do it says do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. And then he wrote to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus, God makes you a saint when you trust Christ as Savior. Faithfulness is your job enabled by the Holy Spirit of God who reduplicates the life of Christ in you. Christ in you the hope of glory. So that the business of being faithful and easy for God to use as a result is something that comes us a byproduct of your yielding to the Spirit of God and obeying what God says to you.

Well then we come to verse 2 where he says, “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ”. This is a typical opening of any letter that Paul wrote, you’ll find him again, and again using this special opening benediction. And it is I think then of special significance to you and to me. He starts with something that we better be aware of right away, “Grace says he be to you”. The Grace of God was always forward in Paul’s thinking. Later on in this same book you’ll find Paul saying, ‘By grace are you saved through faith and that not out of yourselves it is the gift of God” that’s saving grace.

In the letter to the people at Corinth, Paul spoke about the fact that there was given to him what he called a, “thorn in his flesh” and what it was we’re not told, some people think it has to do with trouble with his eyes and other people have other surmises about what this affliction was that he had for which he prayed three times. He said, “I besought the Lord thrice” and that word “besought” means I prayed over and didn’t sleep for a long time, probably with prayer and fasting and all of that. He was really seeking God to get this thing healed, but he said that is the Lord said unto me, this is 2 Corinthians 12:9, “He said unto me my grace is sufficient for the for my strength has made perfect in weakness”.

Now that’s grace to suffer and grace to endure and grace to see a matter through even though the circumstances don’t change. What happened then with Paul’s attitude about this? He said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory and my infirmity. Infirmity is a long word meaning weakness, our glory in my weakness that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore he said, I actually take pleasure in infirmity, weakness, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake for when I am weak then am I strong.

Notice by the way what he’s taking pleasure in, he says, “infirmity” that’s our word weakness. You need to lift the box and you can’t lift it, you need to move something from here to there and you can make it budge. You need to work another three hours and your strength is gone and you haven’t the strength to finish it weakness. In reproaches, that is criticism that comes because of your weakness. Necessity, that’s too much month at the end of the money, have you had that experience? Yes I guess we all have. Persecution, that is physical danger or harm because of your faith. Distress, that’s the inside reaction to all of these other pressures because we are human beings we become distressed that is to say when outside problems arise namely, weakness, criticism, need, and persecution that’s the possibility of physical danger or harm because of your faith, then what happens?

All of that trauma, all of that pressure mounts up and it produces a reaction inside the individual. Why? Well, because you’re a human being. Now what happens, he says, “When I’m weak”, then by the grace of God he said, “I’m strong”. My grace, says our Lord, is sufficient for thee. Now beloved, I’m talking to somebody today who says, “Well, I guess it’s all over for me. I can’t get around like I used to”. Maybe arthritis has tied you in knots and to move even a finger is excruciating pain let alone to get up and walk around. You move with great slowness because those joints have calcified and swollen up and the pain is immense and nobody knows how you live with pain every minute of your life and you say, “Well, I guess that’s it I can’t do anything more”.

My dear friend does it ever occurr to you that although your body may be immobilized because of this human affliction, yet you can walk around the world by prayer before breakfast. You can be in China, and you can be in Japan, and you can be in Indonesia, and you can be in Russia, and you can be in other countries of Europe, and you can be in Latin America, and you can be in the island world, and you can walk through the streets of the great metropolises of the world by prayer. God moves things by prayer, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much, oh friend. No it’s not all over for you. Jesus says to you, “My grace is sufficient for thee” and you can say, “when I’m weak, yes arthritis has got me bound to a wheelchair, when I’m weak, yes my heart is so weak that I can’t lift anything or do anything or walk up or downstairs, when I’m weak, yes since this operation you say I haven’t got the strength that I used to have, I wonder if it will ever come back, when I’m weak, oh then says, Paul, then by the grace of God I’m strong.

Oh, this is a lesson that you and I have to learn and relearn, isn’t it true? Every time something hits me and I react in typical human fashion, the Holy Spirit of God has to remind me ‘cause I’m sure he reminds you, that there is a resource in God, that there is all the grace that you need, that there’s all the wisdom and guidance that’s necessary, God is never late and He will never fail you for He hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”. The grace of God grace to save grace to endure, not somehow but triumphantly. Oh, the grace of God.

Now Paul makes much of it and you’ll find that God’s grace is mentioned constantly in his writings. There’s grace to suffer and the grace of giving. Paul’s speaks of it in 2 Corinthians he said, “Now you people in Corinth don’t you be backward in this grace of giving”. God’s grace extends in other words, God’s extends to every facet of life. In the book of Acts it says with great boldness the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. There’s the grace of personality. And they said of our Savior they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth, there’s the grace of vocabulary. In other words, God’s grace not only saves you, but it permeates every area of your life today.

Take the person that is you. What is your situation? Well maybe you’re in what they call the sunset years. I think of what my father said to Inak Monstrum years ago, when Inak dear precious servant of God who is now with the Lord a number of years, a deacon in the local church where I was serving in Chicago. Inak came up to my father who was now blind and nearing 80. He came up to him and tugged at his coat tail and my father turned his heard toward Inak and said, “well,” and Inak said, “Brother Cook I just wanted to say hello to you.

Isn’t wonderful to know the Lord in your sunset years?” And my father turned those blind eyes, there was a snapping fire even if they were blind toward Inak and he said, “He said sunset years”, did you ever hear such nonsense? Why said he, “I’m having the time of my life! Why if I had my eyes sight I’d get married again and raise a family”. Oh, dear, that was the man that we affectionately called, Pop, Charlie Cook was my father, quite a character. I of course I’m different, right?

But you see you don’t have to give up simply because the years have passed. You don’t have to give up simply because the years are passing. God will give you strength and blessing and verve and enthusiasm and vision and capability for what He wants you to do today. No, I can’t do some of the things I did when I was a boy. When I was in the garage business I used to be able to go to the corner of a model T Ford and lift up so that they could put a couple of bricks on the axel and lift up the car. I wouldn’t try that today, I’d have a bunch of burst spinal disks I’m afraid.

No, there’s a lot of things you can’t do now that you may once have done that is not the measuring stick of effectiveness. God has something’s for you to do today that only you can do. God has a place for you to live today beloved, that only you can fill because you are living in a certain location He has people that you are going to touch who wouldn’t be touched and blessed in any other way. God has a work situation for that is His choice for you. Use today by the grace of God, the grace that saves, and the grace that helps endure trials and tribulations and sicknesses. The grace that helps you give of yourself and your substance. The grace that brings the presence of God into the situation without a word being said. The grace of vocabulary where the words you speak become the very message of God.

Let the grace of God be real in your life beloved, today. Now how do you accomplish that? Well how did you get saved? Colossians 2:6 says this, “As ye have therefore received the Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in Him”. How are you saved? By faith, by committing yourself to Christ, right? Well, then take the package of life that is you today, and hand it over to your blessed Lord just as you trusted in to save you, so trust Him to use you by His grace. Amen. Oh I trust that that may be so. God bless you my dear friend every step of the way.

Dear Father today, may we live by Thy grace in Jesus name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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