Covered By Gods Grace!

Covering Grace

Romans 5:15 KJV 1900

15 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, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

“And the Gift by Grace” “Hath abounded unto many”

Many people allow their past mistakes define who they are. But, through Gods unmerited favor we have the power to overcome and look to the future!

Don’t let the mistakes of the past rob you of the NOW joy and the JOY of your future that is yours through the grace of God!

God does not desire for your mistakes to become a prison to hold you hostage for the rest of your life but a pathway to bring you into the glory of God. Your past should be a testimony of the glory and power of God!

There is not one person under the sound of my voice that has not made a mistake or have messed up in some way or another. We all have and we all will make a mistake in our life! I have good news for you this morning!

You may have made mistakes, but you are not one!

You may be down but down is not your destiny!

You may have failed but you are not a failure!

Heaven desires to make you! Hell desires to break you! And both wants to use your mistakes to do it!

Heaven Desires to Make You!

Jesus desires to use your mistakes to fertilize your growth through the covering of Grace of God! We learn in:

Luke 13:6–9 KJV 1900

6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? 8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Notice verse 8! “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, then dung it”.

Dig it and Dung It

When Jesus begins to dig, it means that he is going to plow through the hardness of your heart brought on by the trials of life! By people being used by the devil to harden you.

To “dung it” means to use all the things that caused you to be hurt, life mistakes and failures as a means to fertilize your growth through Grace! God wants to use the things meant to destroy you to be turned around to lift you up for His glory!

God uses the things we go through to mold our character and to conform us to His ways.

Mistakes can become informative, mistakes can be revelatory!

God revealed a side of himself that never would have been revealed through the mistake Adam made in the garden of Eden. God revealed his mercy through what most people would have labeled an unforgivable sin! That’s what we experience in the world today! I can hear a shout from the people saying crucify! You will get that from the world, the people in the world, they will not forgive you! But God is faithful to forgive us of all of our sins and transform us!

We must, through the leadership of the spirit allow Jesus to move us into forgiveness and realize the covering of grace by learning from our mistakes and move on! We were never meant to stay in our failure! We were never meant to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. God wants us to move on!

Great grace comes after great mistakes!

The greater the mistake the greater the grace of God comes to cover you and give you power to grow! Where sin abounds, Grace much more abounds!

Hell desires to break you!

The devil wants you to be made a prisoner of past failures and mistakes! The devil desires for you to live in your mistakes so the they can hold you hostage, mentally, spiritually and emotionally! To stay in a lifestyle of repeated failures. To be chained and held hostage in a life loop of failure! Turn to your neighbor and say, get out of the loop of failure!

He desires for you to hold on to the hurtful actions and words from others in your life! He wants them to define who you are. To make and mold you to the world and have your eyes focused on the cares of this world! To live a life of fear! God has not given us a spirit of fear!

He desires to break you down and be made a slave of your past. Because he knows that if you live in the past you will never look to the future where the covering of Grace is!

If we allow this to happen we will make decisions based on past experiences. Have you ever heard of a spouse not being able to move forward because they think that the new spouse is going to be like the previous one? They start looking for the same behavior of past relationships. Building up walls that end in another failed relationship! God wants to end the cycle of a failed lifestyle!

I have good news for you!

God Has Great Grace!

The bible says in Acts 4:33 “33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”

The devil may come to you and say, how could you have made this huge mistake in your life! How could you have made a mess like you have! You are a failure! You will never account for nothing! You have been to evil to be a child of God! You might as well give in, give up! You will never make it out! Things will never get better for you!

But God looks passed your mistakes and failures and gives great grace to overcome! Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world! You are a child of the most high! God will turn your mistakes and failures in to victories!

Grace gives us the power to overcome!

The issue is not, are you going to be knocked down!, the issue is are you going to stay down!

God can transform you through your mistakes to be what he wants you to be!

With God you are never defined by your mistakes! People will, critics will. Your enemies will define you by the smallest mistake that you have made. You can do everything right and most people will define you based on that one small mistake that you made.

But, God will never define you by your worst mistake. This is called covering Grace! or Great Grace!

An elder brother spirit will. Remember the prodigal son? When he came home dad said lets throw a party, that which was lost has now been found! The elder brother was sitting in the corner thinking about his brothers past! Defining him by what he did! Jealousy gripped him and all he could focus on was the mistakes. We must not be like the elder brother but rejoice with the father that things have turned around by the glory of God!

I am not telling you go out and make mistakes so that you can see Gods grace. No, No, No, But I am telling you that regardless of how messed up we are, Gods grace is sufficient for us!

Don’t join the devil’s side! He is a liar and the accuser of the brethren! Don’t focus on all the negative and the mistakes and failures of others. Look for the good of God’s glory in every one and everything!

Accuser of the brethren

The devil will get you to talking about someones past. Gossiping about what they did wrong. Don’t define people who made a mistake by their mistake. Pray for them instead! Lift them up to the father! Be an instrument used by God to turn things around in that life!

Lets stop defining people by their mistakes! God won’t define you by your worst mistake.

Mistakes and failures do have consequences! But there not supposed to define your future! They are supposed to be the fertilizer for your growth! a pathway to opportunities! A way to learn the will of the father! You can find the way, the truth, and the life in your deepest valley!

If you made a mistake and have repented, you have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can now move on! Look up! Hold your head up! You are a child of the King!

The devil wants to crush and humiliate you and make you stay captive in failure! Chained up by your past! Depressed and discouraged to the point that you think you don’t have anything left for God! You begin to feel alone! Undeserving! Your joy, peace, and praise have been robbed! Can I tell you this morning that God desires to restore you! Will you let Him!

Hell wants to chain you! haven wants to conform you!

Look at David, he killed people, commited adultery, made mistake after mistake! God didn’t bring that up! God said in spite of your mistakes I am going to use you fro my glory! He turned out to be a man after Gods own heart!

Look at Peter, Jesus gave him the keys to the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 16:19. After that Peter cursed and denied the Lord three times and when Jesus came to him after his resurrection, he didn’t say Peter give me the keys back. Peter went on to be used mightily by God.

Jacob! He done many mighty works including calling down fire from heaven. But, then when he heard Jezebel was coming after him and he ran an hid in a cave. he made a mistake but, God didn’t bring up his mistake but came to him in a still small voice. Isn’t funny that a person can do so many things right and one thing wrong and that person is defined by the one thing that they done wrong and we forget all that they have done right.

Many of the characters in the bible made mistake after mistake, failure after failure. But, God didn’t bring their mistakes up! God said I knew you were going to make mistakes and fail but I am going to use you any way! I am going to make a way for you to find that right path again! I am going to lift you up and let my glory shine through you! This is great grace!

How many of you have made mistakes and said to yourself, why did I do that? That was stupid of me! I made a mess!

I have made many mistakes as pastor of this church! As a matter of fact you wouldn’t believe how many times I have said to myself, why did I do that? That was so stupid of me! I could let my mistakes define me or allow Gods grace to tell me that God loves me and wants to use me. I refuse to be defined by my failures! I refuse to let anyone tell me that I am not good enough! I proclaim God’s grace to conform me!!

Can I tell that Jesus has not changed His mind about you because of your mistakes? He still wants to use you for His glory! We just got to moved past our mistakes and into Gods Great grace!

When you are down, Gods Grace brings resurrection power!

God knew you would mess up! God knew that you would make mistakes and he saying this morning that that is why I have given you great grace to overcome and be used for my glory. He is saying, don’t you realize that I have great plans for you, for your life! Plans that bring an expected end! Plans that bring you glory!

Your mistakes are not finale! God wants to use you anyway!

Don’t let your mistakes hold you hostage!

Yes, you have done things wrong, yes, you have made a mess of things and if you are not careful those mistakes will hold you hostage and before you know it you will fall away from Him, you will stop praying, praising His name and end up down and discouraged. Gods not putting this on you the devil is putting this on you!

God has more Grace than your disgrace!

God is giving you great grace for great mistakes! Rise up in His grace this morning and let Him make you an overcomer! Don’t let your past define who you are, don’t let the gossips define who you are! Don’t let the devil define who you are! You are a child of God and you will be used for His glory!

CON: How many of you feel trapped because of past mistakes and failures? You feel like you are in a prison built by the words of others through you mistakes. You feel like you are all alone chained up not being able to move, not being able to get out of this rut of living in the past! Come let Jesus give you great grace for you disgrace!