In Christ - The Commission Of Grace

What if God’s call on your life is closer than you think—and what if He’s already given you the power to live it? In this In Christ message, Scott Wiens walks through Ephesians 3:1–13 and traces two gracious steps God took with Paul—and still takes with us today: commissioning and empowering. Scott opens with a memorable story about a former coworker named Steve, whose steady kindness and quiet faith helped steer him back to Jesus. That picture becomes the frame for the day: God doesn’t just call pastors and missionaries; He gives every believer a “commission of grace.”

Scott shows how Paul owned his specific call to preach to the Gentiles, then turns the question toward us. Beyond titles and platforms, what are we owning? The commission of grace is the mandate given to all Christians to reflect the power of the gospel in everyday life—at a checkout line, in a cubicle, at the dinner table. It’s not performance; it’s a new nature that shines through habits, speech, and choices. Drawing from Romans 12:1–2, Scott challenges halfway Christianity and calls us to present our whole selves to God. When belief and behavior align, people see a sermon rather than just hear one.

From there, the message gets practical: three simple ways to carry this commission. Live a holy life that matches your confession. Serve, because Jesus defined greatness with a towel over His arm and His eyes on “the least of these.” And share your testimony. Many will argue with a verse; few can dismiss a changed life. Scott urges us to be ready with gracious words (1 Peter 3:15; Colossians 4:5–6) and a renewed life (Ephesians 4:20–24) that makes the gospel plausible.

Then comes the hope we all need: when God commissions, He empowers. Paul ministered “by the working of God’s power” (Ephesians 3:7). The promised Spirit gives a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26–27), brings life to mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), and pours out grace richly (Titus 3:5–6). This is not self-help. It’s the living Christ at work within us, breaking chains and reshaping desires so our light isn’t hidden under a basket but lifted for others to find the way home.

Scott closes with an urgent invitation to walk in the light (1 John 1:5–7): confess what’s holding you back, ask for prayer, and begin again. Grace commissions you. The Spirit empowers you. Someone nearby needs your light. If you’re ready to be all in, this message will help you take your next step.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Steve Drew’s Quiet Influence
• 2:08 Framing The Series In Ephesians
• 4:58 Paul’s Calling To The Gentiles
• 9:10 Commissioned Then Empowered
• 13:35 What Is Our Commission Of Grace
• 18:20 Live Holy Lives Without Halfway
• 24:10 Serving As A Way Of Witness
• 29:00 Share Your Testimony Simply
• 33:30 Empowered By The Holy Spirit
• 38:20 All In: Walk In The Light
• 43:00 Prayer, Confession, And Response

Transcript

Scott Wiens: 0:06

This is a story about a man that I worked with probably 20-something years ago. His name is Steve Drew. Steve Drew lives in Texas, where we were living at the time. And we hired Steve Drew at the company that I worked with. And uh Steve was hired as a salesman, and I was a product expert and pseudo salesperson as well. So he and I did a lot of travel together. We had a small company, company about 40 people, and Steve and I spent a lot of time on the road. At that time in my life, I was not following God. I was, I always like to say I had a hold of his pinky finger, and that's about it. But I was not following God. I was telling, I like telling jokes. I told a lot of inappropriate jokes. I drank too much. I was not a what you would call a godly person. Steve was a Christian. And he didn't he didn't mind sharing that he was a Christian. And as we would travel, he would just shine the light of Jesus on me. He would encourage me. He wouldn't preach to me, but he would just encourage me with his life. He would encourage me with our conversations. Our conversations were always edifying. They never went down a wrong path. And after Steve left the company and I moved to Florida and God got a hold of me and changed me, I remember calling Steve up. And I said, Steve, I got to say thanks to you. And he said, Why, man? Why? Because I'd already talked to him before, but he I said, You loved me at my ugliest. And you shone the light of Jesus in my eyes so bright. And you made an impact on me. Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about the Steve Drews. We're in a two-part series on the book of Ephesians that we've titled In Christ. It's been a great series. Have you guys enjoyed going through Ephesians? I know I sure have. It's been great. Well, in this series, we've been walking through the book of Ephesians and we've been pulling some great truths out of here about what the Apostle Paul talks about being in Christ. And it's been really good. It's been really edifying for me. And today we're picking up in Ephesians chapter 3, the first 13 verses. So let's go ahead and read those together. So in first one of Ephesians 3, of course they'll be up here if you've got your phone or your Bible in your hand, you can follow along. So Paul says, For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for the angels in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that was realized, that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you, do not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Father, as we go through this passage of Scripture, Father, I pray that you would stir your spirit that is within us. I pray that we would hear these words, that they would cut us to the quick, and that we would respond, Father, to them, not because of my anything I say, but because of what you're going to say and speak to us through your spirit. We thank you, Father, we give this to you and we give this time to you in Jesus' name. Amen. So within this passage in Ephesians, Paul is continuing to emphasize his call to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And he wrote about it in the previous chapters. It's been mentioned in a couple of sermons now. It's been great. But in this passage, we find two very simple yet purposeful steps that God took the apostle Paul through after he brought him to salvation. And these progressive steps were commissioning and empowering. He was commissioned and then he was empowered to carry out that commission. And they were necessary, by the way, to fulfill the ultimate goal that God had for the Apostle Paul in taking this message to the Galatians or to the Gentiles. So today I want to examine these two steps by drawing clear spiritual parallels between how God commissioned and empowered the Apostle Paul and how he does that for all of us today. So let's start. Let's first look at how he commissioned the Apostle Paul. Now, most of you, you know this, you've seen this. I know a lot of us are reading the book of Galatians right now in our Bible reading, and Paul clearly states about his commission to the Gentiles, but let's just do a little rehearsal here. In the first three verses of Ephesians 3, listen to what he says. Let's read it again. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. So he identifies his commission right up front. He's identifying it. And by the way, sometimes speaking, that commission is a way to just continue to absorb it and realize and take ownership of that. He said, I was a prisoner on behalf of you Gentiles. Now you know that this was a prison epistle, right? He was in prison in Rome during the time that he wrote this. So he's saying, I'm in prison because of you. Now he's not blaming them for it. He's simply identifying that the reason he's there is because he was sharing the gospel to the Gentiles. He even states in verse 2 that he assumes they have heard of his stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. And by the way, the word stewardship is really interesting. It's basically it's translated a plan that involves a set of arrangements. And I thought that was an interesting way interpretation. It basically says there's a plan. God arranged this. He gave him a commission, and he arranged it from the foundations of the earth that this was what Paul would be commissioned to do for God, of course, for the gospel. And we know, by the way, through the stories that are kept in the book and recorded in the book of Acts, that this is exactly what happened. You know, in Acts 22, Paul recounts this story, and I could just imagine him writing this down, recounting what happened to him. Because as you all know, he was on a horse heading to Damascus, and suddenly the day was not normal anymore. So it's interesting in Acts 22, he recounts this story as he's telling people what happened. And he says in verse 12, starting in verse 12, and one Annaeas, a devout man, excuse me, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing beside me, said to me, by the way, he was standing beside him. Remember, Paul was blind at this time, right? He was still blind. Brother Saul, receive your sight. In that very hour I received my sight, and I saw him. And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you wait? What are you waiting for? Get up, rise, be baptized, and wash away the sin, your sins for calling on his name. In that same account, literally down in 20 verse 21, he says this clearly. He's in a trance, by the way, at this time. And God is Jesus is speaking directly to him while he's in this trance, and he hears Jesus say to him, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. This was a clear, clear commission to this man. He had no doubt about it. He didn't need a neon sign. He heard it directly from God. And by the way, in our own text today, in chapter 3 of Ephesians, he kind of confirms that as well. In verse 8, he says, To me, though I am the very least of the saints, by the way, I love his humility. All through his writings you see this. He says, Though I am the very least of the saints, this grace was given to what? To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for the ages in God who created all things. Now, if you know anything about Paul, you know one thing. He owned this. He owned this. He accepted this commission and he walked in it in power. He owned it. There was no halfway with him. That was his identity in many ways. In Romans 11, 13, he says, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. He took that. We just read this, by the way, earlier in Galatians, I think, where he talks about confronting Peter, and he was with the rest of the leaders in Jerusalem. And he talks about that again. He says, I have been called to the Gentiles, Peter to the Jews, right? He's identifying this. It was his identity. He owned it. So with that in mind, how about you and I? What commission have you gotten? I want to deal with a little fallacy here, just in case there might be residing somewhere in one of your minds. There's this fallacy that says, you know, there are some people that are commissioned, but if you look at scripture, most of this commissioning was given to a specific person. I mean, like this one here. The Apostle Paul was given to a specific person. And indeed, most of the scriptures, you could kind of make an argument when they talk about an actual commissioning, they focus on a person or a group of people. Matthew 28, the great commission. Who is he speaking to? He's speaking to his disciples just before his ascension, right? Go ye therefore into all the world, preaching the gospel to everyone, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, that's he's talking to the disciples, Scott. It's not to me. Okay. Remember Paul commissioned Timothy in the book of Timothy? He was literally commissioning him as a shepherd elder and as a leader in the church. If you look at the office gifts in verse in chapter four, which we're going to talk about here in a couple weeks, evangelists, shepherds, teachers, apostles, prophets, all specific individuals. Right? And in our own church, by the way, we commission people. We have people that are commissioned. Mark Medley is a perfect example of that. The church began to see a calling. He began to receive a calling. He began to share that. People began to see that. He was prayed over. He was commissioned, and he is going out to all the different countries and he's sharing the gospel and encouraging leaders. He's called to minister to leaders. Yuri and Olga, same thing. And then you look locally. We've got some of our own people that are being commissioned all the time. I think of people like Rob and Chris Ellis, Ryan McCrillis. These people are called to locally, but they're called to go out and to share the gospel a lot of times through discipling. And Ryan McCrillis does a lot of that. It's wonderful. But what about the average Christian? What's our commission? Do we have a commission? Well, I think scripture does identify there are two types of commissioning. One, like we talked about, to specific people to go out and to share the gospel or do specific things for him. But I also believe there is something that I've termed the commission of grace. A commission of grace that basically is given to everyone that has been saved by grace. Now, I put a definition together of what I call the commission of grace, and I think it'll be up here. It's a mandate given to all Christians to reflect the power of the gospel in their daily lives, serving as a beacon of hope and inspiration to the laws through their actions and words. In other words, Steve Drew. In other words, you. I bet when I told that story about Steve, I bet a lot of you were thinking of your own Steve Drew in your head. Because every one of us, every one of us that has been filled with the Holy Spirit, that has been called, that has repented, and we're walking, there has been a Steve Drew out there that God used through his commission of grace or her commission of grace to influence you. When God brings someone to salvation, the expectation, as we see in Scripture, and we will look at it, is that they will naturally become a beacon and a light to the world through their lives and actions. And it's for all Christians. And by the way, that might be your next door neighbor. Maybe you're called to be a light to your next door neighbor. Maybe you're it's a family member. In fact, I don't have to say maybe it is. It's your neighbor, it's your family member, it's your coworker, it's the person that you run across in Walmart. Or Target. Everyone, you have been called to fill that commission of grace. And Jesus makes the clearest statement about this that I can I could find that I thought was just so perfect. It's in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Who's he talking to the Sermon on the Mount? The multitudes. He's talking to everybody, and look what he has the gall to say. He says, You are the light of the world. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Bunch of unsaved people here, Jesus. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. I think about Derek's house, by the way. It's way up in a hill. Like he turns his Christmas lights on. Everybody's gonna see it. He's way up there. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a stand and they give light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. That's all of us. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about this commission of grace. Bringing a light means that we need to reflect the gospel. We need to reflect what's been done inside of us to everybody around us. And by the way, that doesn't mean we're called to be eloquent. We're not going to be Billy Graham's. Very few people are called to that type of ministry. Very few people are commissioned to that type of ministry. But we don't have to be eloquent to share Jesus. We'll talk about that a little bit more. We should always be ready. And I, a couple of scriptures, actually, I'm doing my practical apologetics class. In the first class, we covered this one scripture, 1 Peter 3.15. Something a lot of scripture a lot of you have heard before. Peter says, But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord is holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. He's talking specifically to us. Be ready. Well, what's that mean? Does that mean you have to be ready in case you get called up to a pulpit and have to preach? No. He's saying, be ready if you run across somebody that needs to hear the truth. And you're given an opportunity to share that. Be ready for that. Paul also writes in Colossians 4, beginning in verse 5, walk in wisdom towards who? Outsiders. Oh, how do I do that? Making the best youth of your time, let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer, how you ought to answer each person. Again, a reference to how we are supposed to approach those that are not of the household of faith. So, how would we fulfill this commission of grace that we've got? How do we go about fulfilling this? Well, it's really simple. There's really three primary ways that we do this. And you could probably add more. Sermon time didn't allow me to do that, but there's plenty. These are kind of the highlight ones. The first one is pretty obvious live holy lives. And by the way, that was talked a lot about here this morning already. Living holy lives. One of the most powerful ways you can fulfill your commission of grace is to live a life that is holy so all around you can seek. And I'm talking about 24-7, y'all. I've known a few Christians that are great on Sunday mornings. But they aren't really very Christian on Monday morning at 8. Me, when it for me, being a Christian means you have to be all in. And I will tell you, when God got a hold of me, I remember that clearly. I remember that moment in time. I was we were living in Florida. I was I had gone for a long walk in the woods, and I was sitting out there, and God just said, Scott, you're either in or out. There's no halfway. You're either in or you either believe this all the time or you don't believe it. What's it gonna be? And I remember just being hit like a ton of bricks by that. You know, Romans 12, 1 and 2, I love what the apostle Paul says here because he couples this with his word, with the word sacrifice. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. What is the mercies of God to you and me? Salvation. In his mercy, he called us and saved us, right? What should that be? To present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Present your bodies? Like you're gonna die or get killed? Well, maybe, but I don't think that's what he's talking about specifically. I think he's saying your body, everything that you do, every action you take, should be presented to him as a sacrifice. I just you can't get anything else out of that. It's so clear. Do not be conformed to this world. Okay, now he's expanding on that, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul's saying, you gotta be all in, y'all. All in. All y'all gotta be all in. And by the way, it's hard to do. You know, many believe in God, many believe that God the Father sent Jesus to die for us. Many people even believe that you gotta accept the sacrifice of Christ in order to be saved. But unfortunately, many stop right there. That's where they stop. They don't make Jesus the Lord of their lives. They give them a portion, they give them Sunday morning, but they don't give them the whole thing. And the challenge, I guess, the question I have to ask for all of us to ask ourselves is have you and I presented all of our lives to Jesus Christ? Because that what that's really what he's asking. That's what he's asking. And I appreciated what Derek had to say. We are pulled all the time. All the time we are pulled away from that, from that goal, from that, from that commitment. We have control over that. He did. And the control was the power of Jesus to break every chain, to break every chain, to break every chain. And he can. Do you believe that? Do you really believe that? He can break the chain that you have right now. Do you believe that? We have to. If you don't, you're gonna walk in defeat. And that's not what he's called us to walk. He's called us to walk in power. You know, do you still tell those little white lies and justify it in your mind? You know, do you you still gossip and trash talk people? You still use your sarcastic humor to cut people down. Man, I hate sarcasm. Do we treat our spouse with disrespect or hold back love from our spouse? You participate in ungodly things in our culture. Everybody does it. Well, he goes to church with me and they watch that show. It's gotta be okay. We ignore God's design for sex and decide, well, we're gonna do it our way. So I'll go right up to that point there, God, but this part I'm not gonna give to you. Do you see where I'm going with this? And I'm not talking about just obeying so you can obey to earn something. You gotta get that clear in your mind. I'm not preaching a how-to sermon here. I'm talking about giving it all over to God because that's what He demands. The reason some of us don't want to be a light to the world is that we haven't given ourselves completely over to the light of this world. And until you do that, you cannot reflect the life of Christ and the love of Christ in the eyes of the people that need to see it. Someone said one time, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day of the week. You know, we get to get up here, we get to preach to you guys and share the gospel. You think, man, that person's got a lot of influence. You know, collectively, your influence is far greater than mine or anybody that stands up here and preaches. Because not only can each one of you influence multiple people, you get to influence the people that would never come into this church. Do you see that? You see that? I got I I've got neighbors, you got neighbors, we got people, we got coworkers of people that we can witness to and share to that somebody up here could never reach. That's the commissioning of grace, and we need to walk in that. So, holy lives. The great evangelist Billy Graham said this, and I thought it was really apropos. The unbelieving world should see our testimony lived out daily because it just may point them to the Savior. Oh, it's so true. Now, the second way you can fulfill the commission of grace is to serve. You want to fulfill the commission of grace, you need to become a servant. Why? Someone tell me why we need to be a servant. Jesus, yeah. Jesus is the right answer in this particular question. He epitomized what a servant was, he modeled it. I still, one of my favorite scenes from The Chosen is when James and John come up to him and they say, Hey, can we be on your right and left side? And I think Jonathan Roomy did a really good job of how he responded to them. But what he said to them, and is recorded in Mark 10, he said, Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. Wow. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Wow. Jesus even talks more specifically about this in Matthew 25. And um, in this, he's the context is he's talking about the great day of judgment, right? And he's talking about uh why these people are being welcomed into the kingdom. And he says, for in verse 20 uh 35 of Matthew 25, he says, For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me in. I was naked, you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. And then the righteous are gonna look at him, and they said, Lord, when do we do any of these things? And they list them all. And he says in verse 40, and the king will answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, as you did it for one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. Oh man. Serve people. And by the way, serving can be opportunistic. You might be driving home today and see an opportunity to serve somebody. Maybe someone's broke down the side of the road. Maybe you have an opportunity to, you're going out to eat and give a and give your server a great tip. You know what really shames me and I hate is that I've heard that when most Christians go out to eat, they don't tip very well. That should not be our reputation. Our reputation would be to make that person get weak in the knees by wow, you bless me this much. You want you want to share the gospel, share it with how you treat people. But you know, serving can also be purposeful. In fact, in our lives, it should be purposeful, meaning we look for places to serve and ways that we can help people. A lot of you that I know closely have a really strong servant's heart. Um, you know, in our church, and you can start here, by the way. We have plenty of opportunities to serve here. You know, whether you want to be an usher, whether you want to be in children's ministry. And by the way, like our media team right now, we're looking for people to train up in our media team. And you might say, Well, I don't know anything about that. Hey, that doesn't matter. Neither did they. In fact, sometimes I wonder if Timothy really knows anything. I'm just kidding, Timothy. Uh-oh, the lights are gonna go down, I'm gonna lose my power. But you might say, Well, I'm not qualified to serve. Of course you're not qualified. None of us are you. That's how you learn, right? So you can serve here in the church, but brethren, there's plenty of places to serve. And they don't always have to be even a Christian ministry. Those are great places to start. You know, we do a lot of that, and we see, and by the way, if you want to serve, just talk to Chris and Rob Ellis. They can teach you how to serve. You don't have to be in these walls to do it. In fact, most of the time you're not in these walls. My daughter Jessica, I'm so proud of her. She's been serving at Love Kitchen. Wave your hand, Jessica. Her and her aide faith have been serving, yeah. She's so cute. She has been serving at Love Kitchen for probably over four years. And this is a picture of her uh serving at Love Kitchen. And Love Kitchen, by the way, is is a ministry that was started by three black women. There were sisters, and they wanted to serve the needs in the in the in the community, giving food to shut-ins, giving food to homeless. And so they started small in their own little kitchen, and God blessed it, and God blessed it. And all these volunteers come in, and Jessica goes there and she she'll wash the dishes, she'll look, you know, she'll scoop out this the make the trays up and she'll do anything that needs to be done there. And she's serving. Just start looking. You want to shine the light of Jesus to people, serve them. It's as simple as that. That. A third way you can fulfill your commission of grace is to share your testimony. Share your testimony. Now, we've already read the scripture in 1 Peter that says, hey, you need to be prepared, right? We understand that. But you have to understand sometimes we think that we have to have the gospel down pat. And by the way, you should understand the core gospel. A lot of us know the Romans road, you know, those key scriptures in Romans that talk about the gospel truths. It's okay to know that. But you know, people can reject the Bible as an authority. And you might share that, you might be sharing these scriptures and they say, Yeah, I don't believe in the Bible. You know something they can't reject? Your testimony. I think of that man that Jesus healed of blindness, and I love what he said to the Pharisees. He said, All I know is that I was blind, and now I see. They're not about building the CMA. They don't care about building the CMA. They care about getting the gospel out to people. And I know this is going to help me. And you know how they do it? They serve. They serve. And people love them because they're servants. And by serving, they're given opportunities to share the truth. It's a wonderful thing. So uh share your testimony. Nobody can reject that. You know, um, the apostle Paul writes many things about what our lives were like before and what they are now, being in Christ. And a lot of people, you know, you want, you know, if any man is in Christ as a new creation, you know, first uh 1 Corinthians 5.17, we think about that scripture. But in in chapter 4 of Ephesians, I'm going to steal someone's scripture that's coming up, but this is just so powerful. He says this in verse 20 of Ephesians 4. But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and you were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. So put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires. And verse 23, here's the opposite. And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. The likeness of God? Wow. We're recreated in his image. Do you believe that? Man, that's powerful. Be ready to share your testimony. And I don't care if people look at you and reject you, it doesn't matter. They cannot reject what God did for you. They can't argue against that. All right, let's look at the last part of the service, the message. Let's talk about empowering. Now, the apostle Paul knew that he had been empowered to be able to carry out the commission that he'd been given. In fact, in verse 7 of Ephesians 3, this what he says Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. Now, Paul was supernaturally, of course, knocked off the horse. I mean, made, he was struck blind. There was a lot of supernatural things that happened to the Apostle Paul. He was supernaturally taught by Christ. I mean, there was a lot of powerful things that happened to him. He knew the power that was behind everything he did. And that was behind and the engine behind him sharing the gospel with everybody. Ezekiel 36, 26 through 27 is a passage of scripture we quote often, but it's I thought it was just so appropriate for this message about being empowered to carry out the commission of grace we're given. Ezekiel says, and this is a prophecy, of course, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. A new spirit. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put in put my spirit, capital S, by the way, within you, and this is really important, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey all my rules, will cause you. You know, I think sometimes we expect that we're going to be changed immediately, and we are. You say, Well, I still struggle with some sin. Well, guess what? Do you hate the sin? Well, yeah. Well, it's because you've been transformed inside. And the apostle Paul walked in this all the time. The Holy Spirit spoke to him. The Holy Spirit guided him. There's times when he was gonna go here, and the Holy Spirit said, nope, you gotta go over here. It led him, it empowered him to do miracles, to heal people, it protected him physically. Remember, he got bit by that snake, right? He shook it off. Everybody's like, whoa. Supernaturally saved him from death many times. God did not commission Paul without empowering him to fulfill the commission. And he does the same thing with us as believers. He will empower us to do what we're called to do. Romans 8 verse 11, Paul expands on this. He says, If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will do what? Will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Gives life to your mortal bodies. Well, you're already sucking air. You're not dead. It's not, he's not talking about resurrecting you from the dead. The life he's talking about is that new life. The transformation that you go through. And where does that come from? It comes from his spirit dwelling in us, Christ in us. Titus chapter 3, verses 5 through 6 says this. Well, I don't know. Based upon this, he says he's poured out his uh poured out the Holy Spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. God commissioned Billy Graham to do what he was going to do and many other great people in that serve the Lord. He's giving you that same strength through the Holy Spirit to do what he's called you to do. Don't think that you got short changed. No. You have everything you need. When we walk in the commission of grace, we are empowered to live holy lives through Christ that lives in us. And again, we're not gonna be perfect right out front, but if you submit to that, you know, I appreciated what Derek said when we prayed over him. The thing is, Derek submitted to that. You see the difference? He said, I want freedom from this. God responded, it wasn't me, it was God. God did that. You submit yourself to God and you humble yourself and say, I need prayers. And by the way, for those who raised your hands, that was thank you for doing that. You you are saying, I need prayers, I need freedom. We should all want that. We should all want that. And by the way, I could ask any one of you to come up here and give you a mic and say, tell me how God has empowered you through your hope through the Holy Spirit. And almost every one of you could share a powerful testimony of how he did that. That's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. I think the problem is sometimes we don't believe it. We don't believe it. Oh, I can't get over this. I talked to a man recently, he said, I've struggled with pornography for years and years and years. And earlier this year, God freed me from it. He freed me from it. I prayed and prayed and then broke. Break every chain. You cannot stop believing. You must always believe. When God commissions, he empowers. So listen, I'm just gonna conclude by quickly saying a few things. The commissioning of God involves sometimes commissioning people, specific people, but it always, always includes commissioning all of us for this commission of grace, every one of us. And just like Paul was commissioned by God to share the gospel, he's commissioned all of us to do that. And we do it by what we say, how we live, and how we serve the people around us. The question I guess we need to all ask ourselves is how are we fulfilling that commission of grace? I heard if you guys probably remember Vody Bacham, he's passed away, powerful, powerful man of God, powerful purveyor of the gospel. He always used to say, if you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch. But I think there's room for improvement in all of our lives. And it really involves a dedication, a rededication. So we need to ask ourselves, how are we fulfilling that? Are we being that light on the hill? Or are we being the candle under the basket? And if we are being that candle under the basket, why? Why are we half in? What are we afraid of giving up? By the way, I know that. Or I don't want to give that up. You know, I'm I'm gonna give him all this, but by golly, I'm gonna do this. That's not the way it works. That's not the way it works. He wants us to be all in. John says in 1 John 1, verses 5 through 7 this is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. I'm just gonna stop there. God is light, there's no darkness. You're like, yep, I agree with you, Scott. Okay, well, let's keep reading then. If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. We do not practice the truth. One of the things that has happened in the evangelical circles, unfortunately, is this altar calls, which by the way, there's nothing wrong with an altar call. The problem is when that person comes forward and you pray for them, and then you high-five and say, You're saved, and they're like, Oh, good, that was really an emotional sermon. And they walk out and they are the same person they were before the sermon. All they did was have an emotional experience. They come twice the sons of hell, someone said. Because now they think they're saved and they won't receive the truth from somebody. Salvation is not a fake thing, it's not a feeling. It's an act of God that happens inside your heart that is unreparable. It's you cannot change it back. By the way, you wouldn't want to. It can't be changed back, brethren. But if we walk in the light, he goes on to say in verse 7, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and oh, this is beautiful. And the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. I want to walk in that. There's nothing in this world that I want to hang on to that's better than that. And this world's over like this, by the way. Just like that. There's no halfway, there isn't even a 90%. It's all in. And God will, in his mercy, show you progressively the things that you're holding back. He will. And when he does, you might feel a little tug and like, oh man, do I have to give that up too? I don't want to give that up. It ain't worth it. Drop it. Listen, if you feel convicted this morning, we will have a prayer team up front. And there's something you might say, well, Scott, can I just go home and do do some business with God? Sure, you can. You might have someone in here that you want that you want to share with. Well, let me just tell you this. There's something about coming in front of somebody and confessing, and you don't have to be detailed, but just confess, I need prayer and having people pray over you. That's what the body of Christ does. And confession is powerful. So we're gonna have our prayer team come up here. And I just encourage you, if you need prayer for that, realize that there might be people not coming up, they probably should. We all need prayer for that. I need prayer for that. Please stand to your feet and let's pray. Heavenly Father, we stand before you as Trinity Community Church. This church has been ordained by you. We are here. We we are brothers and sisters in Christ called to serve, called to be lights to the world. And we're called, Father, to be sharing our testimony to all. Father, you've given us all this commission of grace, and it's a beautiful commission, Lord, and and you've given us everything, and all we have to do is share what you've done. Father, I pray for each and every one of us here, including myself, Father. That if there's anything we're holding back, Lord, anything that's holding us back from commissioning and fulfilling this commission of grace, that you just you stir it up, bring it to my to our minds. And do what you do so well, Holy Spirit, that you convict us to the point where we just cannot get away from you. Make us miserable, Father, until we we submit totally to you. Because it's life and death that we're talking about. Father, may we be a church that is known as a church that serves, as a church that lives holy lives, as a church that will share the gospel with everyone, Father. Stir our hearts up, Lord. Help us recommit ourselves to you and to the great commission that you've given us all. That's our prayer this morning. We give it all to you, Lord, in the name of the one through whom we have freedom and the one who powers us to do these things. Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.