Good evening. Why, good evening, Scott. Thank you. Let's pray, please. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your favor, your love, Your mercy and Your grace that is toward us and upon us all in all of its abundance in every way. Father, make us those who recognize and appreciate all that You've done and given us in Christ Jesus. May our lives be characterized with great gratitude. appreciation, thanksgiving, flowing from our lips instead of criticism and judgmentalism and fault-finding, running people down. Father, know, let us be those who build one another up in our most holy faith. Glorify the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Bless the Word of God as it goes forth this evening as we magnify your grace once again in our current series. under grace. We thank You for these things. In Jesus' precious name, Amen. By way of announcement for our sermon audio audience and others, we are about to embark in September, as we do every year. This is the 11th year that we've done it. Judy's Ladies' Seminar. This year it is entitled—and I need to have music in the background. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Submission. Possible. Not impossible. Impossible. The M is crossed out. But, Judy assures me this is going to be the best of the best of the best. Everything that she's ever learned or taught or knows about the subject will be presented. And she said she probably won't ever again be need for another seminar. That's not true, not necessarily true. If the Lord tarries and the creek don't rise, we'll have another one next year. It'll be number 12. But please plan to attend. It's going to be a wonderful time. Everybody will be greatly blessed and encouraged by it. So, to our message, Under Grace, Part 5. I've entitled the message this evening, Loving Kindness and Tender Mercy. I could go for some of that. Lovingkindness and tender mercy. Lovingkindness is a word, English word, that comes from the Hebrew word kesed, which is the Hebrew term for grace, like charis, C-H-A-R-I-S, in the New Testament in the Greek, which is translated grace or favor. Lovingkindness is a good way to explain or to define the grace of God, kindness that comes from love, that is the love of God. God is love. And as to His essence, He is love. And God is kind. Behold both the kindness and the what? severity of the Lord, kindness toward those who believe, and severity to those who refuse to believe the Word and the goodness, the kindness, the favor, the blessing of God. So loving kindness and tender mercy. Tender mercy is also a term David uses in the Psalms frequently. which is the Hebrew word Racham, R-A-C-H-A-M. That's how you have to pronounce Hebrew. You have to do it gutturally. Racham! That's it. Tender mercy. And what it means is it means compassion. It's often translated compassion. And it is the compassion of a mother for her infant, unborn infant. as he is in the womb of his mother. And just, you know, that intimacy and protective environment and anticipation of that birth and the relationship of a mother and her child. Tender mercy. compassion. Tuesday, August 9th, 2022. We made it all the way up to 2 Corinthians 12.9, which we touched on, but we'll go back just a little bit and then move ahead. 2 Corinthians 12.9, and he said to me, Paul speaking, and he, the one who said to Paul the following statement, is the Lord Jesus. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you." Paul tells us that he was taken up into the third heaven, in the body or out of the body, he wasn't sure, God knows, but he was shown unspeakable things that man had never heard, and therefore man had never spoken. That's where he received the mystery when he was stoned to death. It corresponds to the time when he was stoned to death in Lister. and lived to tell about it. Nobody lived through a stoning except Paul, because God resuscitated him. After he visited the third heaven and received the mystery of Christ in the church, nobody else has it but Paul. He shared it with everyone else. He shared it with us and with the other disciples. And they came to know about it and learn about it from Paul. But it says, because of the exceeding great revelation that was given to him, there was also given to him a thorn in the flesh. And people debated about what that was and is for years and years, but it doesn't matter. It was a thorn in the flesh. It was a painful affliction of some kind. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was also assigned to him a messenger of Satan, a fallen angel. whose job it was to buffet him. Buffeting is like slapping him in the face, keep slapping him in the face. An irritating, a painful encounter, continuous encounter with an evil spirit, so that Paul was completely dependent upon the Lord. And he said, I've learned to be well-contented with suffering, with affliction, with weakness through these very circumstances. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. Oh, Paul asked three times that the affliction be removed. The messenger from Satan and the thorn in the flesh, he asked the Lord three times, take it away, take it away. take it away. And he said to Paul, my grace is sufficient for you. For power, dunamis—we get our word dynamite—is perfected, made complete in weakness. You don't need power if you're strong. You don't need power if you're weak. but his dunamis is perfected or made complete in weakness, God's power in us. He's not looking for strong people, he's looking for weak people so he can pour his power into us. Most gladly, therefore, Paul says, I will rather boast about my weaknesses. Do you find that to be a point of your bragging or boasting in how weak you are? He says, I will rather boast about my weaknesses. That's not how the world sees things or does things. That's spiritual life. We boast about our inability, our weakness. Apart from me, Jesus said, John 15, 5, you can do nothing. You can't do anything. apart from me, nothing that pleases God, certainly, nothing that measures up, surely, certainly, and only in Christ, by Christ, through the powerful Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Can we do the things that God has commanded that we do, like love one another, like believe the Word without any sight evidence, and hope for what we haven't seen and what we do not see? in time, but that is declared by the Word of God. That's what we're called to do. It's a supernatural life. It demands a supernatural means for its execution. Enter the Holy Spirit. Enter the powerful and living Word. Enter the power of the Spirit. Walk by means of the Spirit. Be filled continually with the Spirit. Ephesians 5.18, Galatians 5.16. And you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. It's powerful. It's certain. This is how it works. This is the spiritual life. God wills and works inside of us by the Word and the Spirit. And we wait through faith. by the Spirit, same Spirit, for the hope or realization of righteousness. Therefore, He does the work in us. We're not working for Him, He's working on us. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which He foreordained or prepared in advance that we should walk in them. And that's Ephesians 2, 9, and 10. So, Paul says, I will boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may skina'o. You say, why do you say that? Why are you using those words? Because it paints a picture that you can't see any other way. It pitches a tent. Skina'o means to pitch a tent. To pitch a tent of power, a pavilion of power over me. Christ does it. And so therefore, it is done and done well, because Christ does it. He wills and works inside of you according to his own good purpose and pleasure as you wait by faith through the Spirit for the hope or realization of righteousness. Galatians 5.5 and Philippians 2.12 and 13. As you work down the assets, of this salvation of yours. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That's the suite of salvation downloads. You have to download a special skill set, how to walk, how to run, how to sit, stand. walk and run." Who did that book, Watchman Nee? Yeah, that's a good one. I'll have to get that one out and look at that again someday. Sit, walk, and stand, I think it's called. That's what we do. Stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord. Moses told the children of Israel as they faced the Red Sea, and the oncoming Egyptian horde, an army, coming to destroy them. And he opened the sea, and they walked through on dry land, stand still, and watched the salvation of the Lord. So grace, according to Paul, meets and exceeds the need, whatever it may be. Nothing is greater than God's grace. There's nothing greater than grace and what it can do to you, in you, for you, and through you. He uses the weakest men and women so that he might demonstrate his strength in a most gracious way. Hidden within is this wonderful provision of grace that meets the need, no matter what it is, of the moment, the need of the moment. 2 Corinthians 4, 7, we have this treasure in earthen vessels, just made out of dust and dirt, dust and ashes, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be seen to be of God and not from us or from ourselves. Now, that's Our first verse is 2 Corinthians 12.9, first grace verse. Now the next one is 2 Corinthians 13.14, where Paul says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God—I'll take all of that, take the grace of the Lord Jesus—and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Grace is loving kindness that provides and protects that gifts and governs, and if needs be, checks and chastens. All of those. Provides, protects, gifts and governs, checks and chastens. All things gracious are seen in our role model, the Lord Jesus. He models all of them. Gratitude. grateful, graceful, and gracious. From His fullness we've all received grace instead of grace, grace against grace, grace upon grace. Old Covenant, and God has always been gracious, loving, and kind, always. But since Christ has come and died, fulfilled all righteousness, and satisfied the justice of God, the new covenant in His blood superseded the old covenant of the law, and God being satisfied and pleased by Christ in every possible way has been rendered even more gracious than ever before. Were it possible? And it is. in this, the dispensation or administration of grace. I'm referring to the church age. That's Ephesians 1.10, Ephesians 3.9, and 1 Timothy 1.4. So, to the 122 original verses, we add 183 more from the Psalms, bringing our total to 305. Everybody get it? They wanted it? This list that I sent them? Good. That should keep you busy for a couple of weeks, months, years, maybe for the rest of your days. It wouldn't hurt you to master some of those or memorize some of them. The ones that really stand out to you. When something really stands out to you, it's a good idea to remember those and to memorize them. What was the one today that I got? In 24, Proverbs 24, 26. He kisses the mouth who answers correctly. I like that one. Correct answer is like a kiss on the lips, in the most pure sense. So we have a nice round number, 305 grace verses. Like Terry said to me outside, there's probably a lot more than that if you get into the original language. You probably see a lot more kasids in there, kasids and kasids, different renderings of the Hebrew. noun and verb. David, King David, who lived around 1000 BC, before any of the scriptures except for the five books of the Pentateuch, Moses' writings, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, were extant or existed. David is so remarkable because he saw past the restriction limitation of the law by meditating upon it, upon the Word, day and night, Psalm 1, to this overflowing, overwhelming, overreaching, overarching grace, and lived in it, lived by it, lived for it. He said, your loving-kindness is better than life. In other words, I don't want to live without loving-kindness, without grace. And he did so all the days of his life. And because he did, God calls him a man after his own heart. Because God is the God of all grace, and is able to make all grace abound unto all of us. He mentions it often, David does, in his psalms. I'll give you a few of them. Psalm 17.7, "'Show your marvelous grace, lovingkindness.'" Cassid. O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them. Indeed, His grace is marvelous, to say the least. Psalm 25.6 says, Remember, O Lord, your racham, tender mercies, compassion, and your chesed grace, loving kindness, loving kindnesses, plural, for they have been ever of old. God has always been gracious, but little was known until Christ came to demonstrate the fullness of God's grace, John 1, 14 to 17. We beheld His glory, that of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And from His fullness we've all received grace instead of grace, old to new, one level to the next, glory to glory, grace to grace, faith to faith, as it redounds to the glory of God. Psalm 26.3, For your grace, lovingkindness, is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth." Here we have grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ. David sees this, he's a man, he's ahead of his time. Somehow he sees this through the law, the only scripture that he had available to him, the only scripture extant at that time. "'For your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth.'" He's saying, it's everywhere I look, I greatly appreciate all you've done and given me, as plainly declared even in the law. It's there. You can find it. The Spirit directs you, teaches you. David had so little in the way of written revelation in 1000 BC, only the Pentateuch was extant. Therefore, by the endowment of the Holy Spirit. No one had what we call the pleroma, or the fullness of the Spirit, at that time, until Jesus came. He was the one that inaugurated the fullness of the Spirit. In John 3.36, he had the Spirit uc metron, without limitation. And that's what you have, believe it or not. He's not a tappet. In order to get shocked, you touch a live wire, like I did today. Matt, thanks for fixing my switch. So you don't want to see me electrocuted at home. Then Ty and Greg would have to teach from then on. And probably lots of people would come then and all the people that that hate me will stay would come back. Because I always talk about the same things and are tired of it. Maybe that's it, who knows. Because I repeat myself, like Pete and repeat. He said, you've said that more than once, that's for sure. Yeah, that's what I said, I repeat myself. And when you get old, you always repeat yourself. You'll see. Wait till you get old. You'll see. Anyway, where was I? Oh, Grace, yeah. He says, Psalm 26.3. They do 25.6. Remember, Lord, your tender mercies and your loving-kindness. They have been of old. Yes. 26.3. For their loving-kindness was before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth, grace and truth. It's everywhere. David looked. David had little in the way of revelation. Therefore, by the enduement of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Grace. You know that, right? Hebrews 10.29, the Spirit of Grace. Given mainly in the Old Testament dispensation before the coming of Christ to the priest, the high priest, the prophet, the king, David had an endowment from the Holy Spirit and studied and meditated and was ahead of his time, much more like a church-age believer sadly, than so many today. In large part, it was his grace orientation that set him apart as that man after God's own heart, who, like our Lord, was the man of mercy. He was grateful, graceful, and gracious, a super sinner. and yet a wonderful and faithful saint at the same time. You say, how could that be? Well, it's true of him and you, too, like him, who, like our Lord, was grateful, graceful, and gracious. Psalm 36.7. How excellent is thy lovingkindness! There's no fluff, no flaw, no fault in grace. It's excellent in every way. And even as He is, even as God is, even as Christ is, utterly reliable, excellent, faithful. Jude 1 says, for certain persons have crept in. unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons, who turn the grace of our God, they don't say, how excellent is your grace, how excellent is your loving-kindness, they turn the grace of God into license, or licentiousness, debauchery, literally. And they live in such a way that they're always looking for the loopholes. Somebody just said that recently, I forget who was quoted as saying that. He says he spends a lot of time in the Word looking for the loopholes. There are no loopholes. There's true definition, spiritual terminology, and you have to learn what it really means from the Scriptures and from the original autographs of Scriptures. As words change over time, they don't stay the same. Some words today that are used didn't mean that at all originally. And we've captured that, and we have the tools to decipher that in the Old and New Testaments. So that's what a pastor's job is. He's to find the original meaning of words and proclaim them. So, he says, they turn the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny our only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. They say you can do whatever you want to do. It doesn't matter, and it does matter. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 2.19, he said, The foundation of the Lord stands secure having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from wrongdoing or iniquity. So, got it? That's what we're to do. Not to say we can do whatever we want and use grace as a license to sin. You have to completely redefine it in order for that to play. And it doesn't play. It's just the opposite. It's the grace of God that teaches us, trains us, Paiduo, as children, even beats us into submission, if needs be, catches us up short to deny all ungodliness, worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age. That's what the grace of God does. The grace of God, which brings salvation to the pure to all men, training us, those who believe, to deny all ungodliness and worldly lust. So, no fluff. in no flaw, no fault, in grace. Psalm 36.10, O continue your lovingkindness unto them that know you. See, if you know God, you know that He's a gracious God. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know you. Continue to unfold it so that I may grow in it and glorify you. 2 Peter 3.18, "...but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to Him be the glory." Growing in grace brings glory to God. To know grace is to know Christ. For like no other, He is gracious. His kindness, His goodness, His blessing, and His favor is unparalleled. And there's nothing, no one like Him. No one at all. He's God Almighty, gracious, grateful, graceful, and gracious. Psalm 40.10, I have not concealed your grace, your loving-kindness, and your truth from the great congregation. David was a spokesman. He wrote these wonderful psalms. And God did not judge David after the chronicles of his life. You could trace out David's egregious sins. His wrong thinking, bad decisions, and wrongdoing. You could trace it out, but God doesn't do that. He doesn't look upon the outward appearance, He looks upon the heart. And here He judges David by the Psalms. Not the chronicles of his life, but the Psalms of his heart. And He does the same with you. So be tenderhearted toward the Lord and express privately your love and devotion to Him. Don't be afraid to say, God, I love you. Do you ever do it? Don't say it in front of people for people to hear it. You might hear him say, well, you know I love you. I proved it. Look at that cross. You don't think I love you. Look at the cross. That should settle it forever. Whereas some would say, what have you done for me lately? I wanted this and you didn't give it to me. That's because he loves you. He didn't give it to you. Not because he doesn't, but because he does. He knew what that would do. That would set you back. And you can't afford to be set back. So, I'm still thinking about saying I love you to God. I love you Lord Jesus. He says it to you all the time, every which way. He says, I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great congregation. David says, I talk about grace all the time whenever I speak, giving glory to God and never claim any success apart from His favor and His power because of Christ. who is the source of God's grace, who is grace and truth personified. Psalm 40, 11, let your grace and truth continually preserve me, or let your loving kindness and truth continually preserve me. God promises preservation under a wide variety of difficulties, trials, troubles, temptations, testings of all kind, summarized by a term in the Greek which is parasmos, p-e-i-r-a-s-m-o-s, parasmos, which means all of those difficulties. James 1, 2 says, consider it all joy. Seriously? Be grateful, my brethren. When you encounter multiple opponents—yikes—multiple opponents coming at you from every side, you get good at it fending them off. It says, various trials—parasmos—knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. You have need of endurance after you've done the will of God that you will receive what was promised. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be complete, lacking nothing that you need. That sounds like a good place to be. It is. It's all grace. Furthermore, in Romans 5, 1 to 5, We have necessary and inevitable suffering, which is part of the plan. And grace and mercy continually available to all who will go to the green room. the emerald throne room of grace. Pallu poikilos, the many-tinted grace of God. Many categories of grace. Receiving mercy and finding grace to help in time of need, Hebrews 4.16. Psalm 42, verse 8. Yet the Lord will command His grace, His lovingkindness, in the daytime. Thank God every day. And in the night, His song shall be with me. Day and night, grace will guide you and guard you and keep you from harm. It's one of the things God assures us of. Protection and provision. In Romans 8.28, working all things together for the good to those who love God and are called according to His predetermined plan and purpose. So it says, all night long His song shall be with me. Put a song of praise and gratitude in my heart along with a continual prayer of thanksgiving. Our prayer should mostly be thanking God for what He's done and what He's given us, not asking Him for other things when we don't even realize or take for granted all the things that He's given us. That doesn't please Him. Gratitude pleases God. And it's uncoerced for the undeserved, unearned favor, blessing, kindness, and goodness of God. Psalm 48.9, we have thought of your grace. loving kindness, O God, in the midst of your temple, occupied with grace, thinking gracious thoughts, speaking gracious words, choosing and doing gracious deeds, imitating our role model, who bequeathed to us a life of grace and truth. From His fullness we've all received grace upon grace. And because of that, grace and truth, I can think of no better name for a church. I think we'll call this church Grace and Truth. Oh, we already did. It's registered, 5013C, State of Pennsylvania Federal Government, non-profit organization. So all of your gifts are tax-deductible. I just thought I'd add that in case you never understood how that works. I can't think of a better name for a church. If I had to do it again, I'd name the church Grace and Truth Church. Psalm 51.1, David sobbed to the chief musician of Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him, told him the story, the nice story, about the man who had large flocks. of sheep, and other livestock, was a very wealthy man, who had a neighbor who had one pet ewe lamb, and he loved that lamb. It was like a daughter to him. It sat at his table and drank from his cup. He truly loved it, like I love my dog. I won't let him drink from my cup. This guy let the lamb drink from his cup. And the rich man was having guests from out of town, and instead of taking from his flock and slaughtering, preparing a meal, he took that man's one new lamb and killed it. And Nathan the prophet said to David, what should be done to a man like that who would do such a thing? He said, he should die a thousand deaths. He said, you're the man. You did that, you took Uriah's wife, his pet, you lamb. Whew, that's hard to recover from. But he did. He's a man after God's own heart. Grace is greater than all the sins of the world combined. What was done on the cross that day, April 4th, 30 AD or thereabouts, when Christ paid for the sins of the world in a single afternoon, it's greater than the sins of the world. They were charged and blamed on him, clusters of trillions, each one's bag of sins too heavy to lift, lifted by the omnipotent power of God and placed upon Christ that day, who suffered immeasurably in a time warp, in a wormhole, the plagues of the damned. judgment for the sins of the world, and a payment so utterly satisfying to God that anyone anywhere who only believes in the person of Christ gets the free and irrevocable gift of eternal life. That's why it's so powerful. It's so right. Psalm 51, the chief musician, Psalm of David, and we said, you won't die. You're gonna live and be an example of how someone can sin so egregiously and still recover and still have a spiritual life even after all of that. People don't like that. You better like it, you better love it because it's your story too. There aren't degrees of sin. There aren't. Sin is sin. All of it stems from the one sin, which is unbelief. That's what sin is. Sin is unbelief, and righteousness is faith. In case you forgot, I'm here to remind you. So, this was when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have you ever done anything so serious as this and recovered? Have you ever killed someone in order to steal his life? Have you ever used your position or influence to steal something, to commit a crime, or harm someone? for your own gain? I hope not. But if you ever did, then grace is precious beyond comparison. And love fills your heart because you've been forgiven so much. You're going to get on the 747 and fly away. Why do you say that? Well, Luke 747 says, for this reason I say to you, her sins—this was that wicked woman, prostitute, who came. She was Mary Magdalene, I believe, and she had seven demon spirits possessing her body. She was so dark and so wicked. He says, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he is forgiven. It says, Having been forgiven much, she loved much. But he is forgiven little, loves only little. So I'm going to be on the 747. Been forgiven so much, and loved so much in return. Oh, please forgive me for I forgot to include ladies as egregious sinners. I forgot. Judy will remind you that starting in September. Different kind in many instances, but sinners nonetheless. You have to forgive me and pardon me for not including you ladies as egregious sinners. I know you appreciate that very much. Like homewreckers, witches, and soul-stealers. Is it possible, Judy, for women to be like that? No, she's not going to admit it now, see? It's absolutely true. I've met a few in my day. So he says, he goes on to say, "...have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your racham, tender mercies, blot out my transgression. By and because of the grace of Christ, His finished work sacrificed, grace is toward us, with us at all times and upon us. We are the objects of God's goodness, kindness, blessing, and favor. Tender mercy is rakam, R-A-C-H-A-M, which means compassion, the kind of loving mother a father has for their helpless or stupid child. Psalm 103.10, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, thank you, Lord, nor rewarded us The reward is the punishment, is what he's talking about, according to our iniquities. Psalm 130, verse 3, that's Psalm 103.10, and we'll get to the rest of it through 14, but Psalm 133 says, if you, Lord, should mark iniquity, keep a record of our sins, track them. O Lord, who could stand? Good question. No one could. But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared, that is, respected and reverenced above all others. I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, indeed more than the watchman for the morning. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, indeed, more than the watchman for the morning. Psalm 103.11, as high as the heavens above the earth, so great is his loving kindness. toward those who fear him. These are his thoughts and ways, not ours, in Isaiah 55, 7 through 9. Thoughts of grace and ways of truth. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has rakam, compassion, on his children. So the Lord has rakam, compassion, on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. Thank you, Lord. I was wondering how that works. Now I know. Psalm 63.3, we'll end with this. He says, it's a good one to remember, Psalm 63.3, I mentioned it before, "'Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.'" God's grace is His kindness and favor toward undeserving objects who are the recipients of Christ's finished work—redemption, His finished work—sacrifice. After He paid for the sins of the world, after all of them were blamed on Him, and He paid for them all, after He fulfilled all righteousness and satisfied the justice of God, He cried in a loud voice from Psalm 22, 31, is finished. And indeed it is and was and always shall be. All that God requires was done and is finished by Christ. And that means in the eyes of God you're a finished product already. God doesn't dwell in time, he dwells in eternity. We dwell in time. But there will come a time when you will see and understand that you indeed were all along, even in time, what he said you are. Because His Word is undeniable and unassailable. You are what He says you are. So it's high time that we begin to believe Him. Nothing pleases God but faith. Without faith it's impossible to please Him, Hebrews 11. God's grace is his kindness and favor toward undeserving objects who are the recipients of Christ's finished work. Without grace, life is not worth living, therefore it's better than life. Without grace, life's not worth living, therefore it's better than life, because thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. With grace, there is gratitude. great happiness. Grateful people are the happiest people of all. Don't you know? Somebody's grateful, they're not depressed. Grumbling and complaining, dissatisfied, unfulfilled and unhappy? Of course not. They don't grumble or complain. They don't boast of themselves or blame others. They overflow with gratitude and appreciation, and are kind to all. Instead of boo-hooing, you'll find them always praising God and thanking Him. That's all we're going to do for tonight. Let's close. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Your grace. It is truly amazing. It's truly wondrous. It's truly wonderful in every way. Make us those grace trophies. Father, may we take full advantage of the information that you've given us concerning your grace, and carry around in our souls the manifestation of the One who is grateful, graceful, and gracious, the Lord Jesus. And be just like Him by receiving your grace and having a heart filled with profound gratitude, recognizing and appreciating all that you've done and given us as our prayer. In Jesus' name. Also, Father, bless the offering in Jesus' name. Amen.