If you can turn your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8 and I'm going to be reading verse 18 through 21. Romans chapter 8, 18 through 21. And our focus mainly is going to be on verse 20 and 21. "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." You know, a few years ago when I was out in China I met a bunch of adoptees, Korean adoptees who were adopted when they were young and then they were brought to the United States.

And some of them were not even aware that they were adopted and then they find out later on in life. And I've actually known a few people where that happened. And obviously you can imagine how much it will change their paradigm and how they look upon life and re-remember everything that they remembered or childhood.

Every once in a while something may happen in your life that causes you to see everything differently. It might be something good, it might be something tragic, but it changes your paradigm. And obviously every single Christian, whether it happened gradually, it happened all of a sudden, it causes us to look at everything differently.

Paul has been talking to a group of Jews where keeping the law was everything. They were seeking shalom from God. To seek shalom basically meant that God would bless their life. And they thought that the shalom from God would come if they obeyed the law of God. So the law to them was not simply obeying and not obeying.

The obedience to the law for the Jews meant financial security. Obeying the law meant that that's their way of being healthy, to get ahead in life. And obeying the law is what caused them to have many children and to be fruitful and to have generational blessings. So imagine if that was your paradigm and all of a sudden, Apostle Paul begins to tell them that absolutely, that absolutely adds nothing to your salvation.

In fact, not only does that not add to your salvation, he says through the law, all you have is condemnation. That's what Paul says up to this point. He's saying those who have the law are condemned without the law. Those who have the law will be condemned because of the law.

That it was not your path of salvation, that you're not going to be blessed, you're not going to be healthy, you're not going to be multiple generations of the Lord's blessing as a result of it. Instead, all it brought was condemnation. So imagine how difficult this must have been for the Jews to accept.

The more committed you were to the law, the more resistant you were to the gospel. Even after the resurrection of Christ, even people who met Christ in his resurrection had a difficult time. They were the Judaizers. They said, you know what, we can't deny the fact that Jesus was resurrected, but they still couldn't let go of their past.

They couldn't let go of the law. So they tried to incorporate some of the law into the new covenant. We can imagine how difficult it must have been for the Jews to accept the pure gospel. And that's why over and over again, Paul and the other authors of the New Testament is arguing this point.

That it is not through the law, but by the grace of God. Paul says something very provocative in this passage in verse 20 where he says, not only is the law not a way of salvation for you, he says the law came to increase trespass. To increase trespass. Meaning that when God gave you the law, not only did it not save you, it actually caused you to sin even more.

So the natural question that we would ask if we read that, and if we misread that, maybe, wait a minute, does that mean that God is the author of sin? Because clearly God gave us the law. And if Paul is saying God gave us the law and law caused us to sin more, then could we say the logical response to that is that God is the author of sin?

Of course not. By no means. You have to understand the context in which Paul is saying. Paul is using the language basically to provoke the Jews to pay attention. Because what he's about to say, he needs to have them, again, to take a minute to reflect and to look upon what he's about to say.

So he's provoking them. He's deliberately using that language, which would get their attention. But along with that, what Paul says here about the law is not comprehensive. He says many other things about the law in other parts of his letters. In fact, in other parts where he actually says the law is good.

Other parts of the letter where he says that there is a law of Christ that we ought to obey. So what he's saying here is not necessarily comprehensive, but in the context of justification, in the context of salvation, the law actually does not cause us to be justified. There's three things that I want to look at in verse 20 and 21 that he says that the law was given for.

So these three things. So number one, he said that the law was given to increase trespass. To increase trespass. As crazy as that may sound, I think in reality, you and I would all agree. I remember years ago, at the very beginning of the church, when I think those who are in their mid-30s now, at that time was probably 18 or 19.

And at the very beginning of the church, every Friday night, we went through the book of Romans. So some of you, a few of you may remember that. Most of you were not there. But while we were going through Romans, one of the assignments that I gave on Friday night was that I wanted them to create their own gospel tract through the book of Romans.

So use the Roman road that we see, the gospel presentation, the book of Romans, and create a gospel tract. So different people, they were put into groups of maybe about three, and then they got gathered together and wrote the gospel tract out. And then they actually made the gospel tract, and then they turned it in.

But I remember this one particular one that Pastor Aaron did that really stood out, that caused me to think, "Oh, that's clever." And what he did was, on the cover of that, and some of you guys, a few of you guys may remember, he says that it says nothing, right?

There's no Bible verse, there's nothing. All it says is, "Do not open." Right? "Do not open." So I remember looking at that, I said, "What kind of a gospel tract is this?" Like, "Do not open." I remember the what's in here. So obviously, you open it. And as soon as you open it, he's like, "You sinner." That was the beginning of the gospel tract.

I remember thinking, "That's clever." All of sin and falsehood are the glory of God. The reason why you open it is because there's a rebellion in our hearts that goes against what's right, and he started going off on the gospel. Again, I remember that stuck in my mind because I thought that was a clever way to begin the presentation of the gospel.

When Paul says that the law came, and when the law came, it provoked us to sin further. But again, it's not that the sin wasn't already in our hearts, but it provoked it. Meaning that when the law came, it revealed what was already dormant in our hearts. And when the law said to do this and do that, it provoked us to rebellion.

The law was never meant, it was never an avenue for us to be saved. Think about it from God's perspective. God gave Adam and Eve one law, and they couldn't obey that one law. And because of that one law, condemnation came into all man. So think how ridiculous it would be where God thinks, "Okay, they can obey this one law, but maybe they can obey the hundreds of laws.

Maybe if they kept all the laws, that they can somehow save themselves." Imagine how ridiculous that logic would be, knowing that they couldn't even obey one law, to think that somehow if you obeyed all the laws, that you can somehow be saved. The law was never brought to us for the purpose of salvation.

In Hebrews 4.12, it says, "The law judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart." When the Word of God is open, it judges us. It convicts us that this is who we are, this is what's happening. But it doesn't say that the law restores us. It doesn't say that the law revives us or saves us.

It just convicts us. In Jeremiah 17.10, it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" Now, you're coming to a Bible-teaching church where we have a high view of the Word of God and a high view of theology in our church. And so when you come to a Bible-teaching church, our natural tendency is to read that and say, "You know, that's right, those charismatics, those who give all their attention to their emotions, but we're about the intellect.

And as long as we don't give in to emotionalism, somehow we are safe." Well in the time of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the word "heart" was not used the way that you and I use it in this modern era. Usually when we talk about heart, we're talking about somebody's emotion.

In the New Testament, when they were referring to specifically emotion, they would say "bowels." Their bowels would be moved in some way. When the New Testament, again the biblical language, when they used the word "heart," it's similar to the way that we would say "soul." All of us, every part of us, including our emotion, our will, and our intellect, all of that is encompassed in this word "heart." At least that's the way they used it.

So for us to understand Jeremiah 17.10, it means, the way we ought to understand it, is that not simply to not trust your emotions, but don't trust yourself, period. Even your intellect. It wasn't just our emotion that got corrupted, even our intellect got corrupted. We can easily rationalize bad theology.

We can easily use the Scriptures to harm people. It is not just emotion, but all of it. That's why he says, "do not give in to yourself." In Colossians 2, 21-23, it says, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch," and he's referring obviously to the law. "Refer to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings." These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, asceticism, and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Commandments that tell us that you ought to do this, and you ought to do this, and you should live in this way, all of these things have some value because it tells us what is right and what is wrong. It may give us a glimpse of God's standard and His holiness, but it says it has no value, it has no power to stop us from going ahead and doing these things.

Again, when we get to Romans chapter 7, we're going to dive into it a little bit further, but just to kind of give you a glimpse because it's related to what Paul is saying here. Romans chapter 7, 14 or 15 and on, you know that passage, well I'm going to read this to you, where Paul is wrestling in desiring to obey the law but having no power.

Just like Paul says in Colossians 2. He says, "I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." How many of you have felt that even this week? I want to do what's right, but you feel absolutely helpless and you feel like you're not making any progress.

He said, "Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good." In other words, the law to a Jew is revealed and says, "You know, that's good." No Jew would have ever said that the law is not good. In fact, the Bible itself says that law is good.

It is a light unto my path. But a Jew, in his natural state, looks at the law and says, "I agree with the law, but I have no power to do anything about it." So imagine how frustrating this is to a Jew. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me, for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For what I do not do, the good that I want, but the evil I do not want, is what I keep on doing, it dwells in my members. What a frustrating state to be in.

The desire to do something, to see the goodness of God. You look at the law of God and it reveals who He is. It's like looking at a path that's going to lead to life and have no ability to take it. The law points us and it highlights who God is and it highlights His glory.

That was the whole point of the temple, the whole point of the revelation of God's law, because it reveals His glory. And so the Jew, in his natural state, sees that glory, but has no ability to get there. And that's why he concludes this section by saying, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am.

Who will deliver me from this body of death?" That's why religious people who have not converted are the most miserable people in this world. People who know what is right and wrong. And all they see from that is condemnation. I think about the group, the Westboro Baptists, and I'm sure you guys have heard of them, and again, I cringe every time the Baptist word gets attached to their church name.

Because these are the guys who are protesting and saying, you know, all these homosexuals are going to go to hell, and all the message that they're giving to the world is condemnation. Religious people who know all the rights and wrong, and yet have not been converted, have actually no ability to get to God.

They don't understand. All they know is condemnation. So the first thing that he says is the whole point of the law is to bring us to that point. But if we ended the sermon here, if Paul's message ended with, "Oh, what a wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" I mean, what a miserable position for us to be in.

And I think sometimes as Christians, that's where we end, even though we may not say it, but somehow in our psychology, in our theology, we end with, "Oh, what a wretched, I'm such a sinner. I have no ability to do anything. It's so frustrating." And then we end, and we think that that's what Christianity is about.

We know what it's good to do, but I have no power to do it, so I'm frustrated the rest of my life until I get to heaven. But that's not where he ends. He says the reason why God allowed the law to come to increase sin is for the second part is to increase grace, so that grace may abound.

Where sin abounded, he says, grace abounded all the more. And that's the message that he was giving in the previous passage. In Romans 5, verse 15, it says, "If many die through one man's trespasses, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace." Up to this point, Paul's been pounding, "You are a sinner." There's now, no, not one, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Jews and Gentiles alike are under condemnation. The wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and righteousness, and over and over and over again. He paints a dark and gloomy picture of mankind, and yet now he introduces this grace, and he says, as dark as grace was, as dark as sin was and death was, grace abounds much more.

Again, in Romans 5, verse 17, "If because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace." So a few weeks ago, when we were going through that passage, we're like, basically what Paul was saying is Jesus' power to save is much greater than the power to sin.

The power of life is much greater than the power of death, and the power of justification is much greater than the power of condemnation. God allows the darkness to take its course. He allows it to be as dark as it can possibly be, so that when he turns the light on, that the light would shine brighter than it would have been without the darkness.

Some of you guys are really gifted in organizing. You guys are organizing Nazis. You're experts. And I know some of you guys. Because I'm not that way, I'm always impressed by people who just like give, and they're so detail-oriented. Your gifts are highlighted when there's a mess. When there's a mess.

If you come into a situation where everything is just perfectly in order, and you come in and say, "I'm gifted," your gifts aren't going to shine. Your gifts shine when there's a mess. If you happen to be very tidy, your expertise and tidiness, it shines when there's a messy room or messy house.

The love of Christ is highlighted in darkness. The darker he allowed it to be, the greater focus was when Christ came and turned the light on. The Scripture says that God came and sent his only begotten Son at just the right time. Just the right time. And we can look at the just as right time as the Roman government, the language being united, the culture, the ability to travel, the political environment at that time, the money being united.

We can say all of that. But you know, God wasn't waiting for the Romans to come into power. God wasn't waiting because he couldn't have paved the road when the Greeks were there. I don't think superficially that all may be true, but in the end, when he says "just the right time," he was allowing the law to take its natural effect.

Where condemnation, where you get to the point, allow the Jews to get to a point of such idolatry, they were in such darkness, that the very God that they were worshipping all these years actually stands in front of them and they don't recognize him. They've been making sacrifice after sacrifice, worshipping this God, and then he comes incarnate and they don't recognize him.

That's how far they drifted away from him. If you look at his ministry, three years of revealing himself to the nation of Israel. He wasn't this gradual light turning on. In fact, if you study the Gospel, you'll see that at the end of three years of labor, they utterly reject him.

John 6, 66, when he says "you're coming after me because you want to eat, but I am the bread of life. He who does not eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, he has nothing to do with me and they don't understand. This is too difficult." And they reject him and they walk away.

How many times have you thought that maybe if I was there when Jesus actually walked on water, my faith would be stronger. Maybe if I actually ate the bread and the fish that those people ate, that my faith would be stronger. How many times have you fantasized and thought about that?

If Jesus showed himself here and we had somebody lame and he raised them and they're walking around, how it would strengthen your faith. Well guess what? Thousands of people were there. Thousands of people were actually there. They saw all of that. They saw the miracles. They ate the bread.

And yet at the end of his revelation, at the end of walking with them, they reject him. Not only do they reject him, the leaders of Israel who was given the responsibility to represent God to his people, they themselves actually make the decision to crucify him. And it was at the darkest period of Israel's history that Jesus goes toward the cross and he shines the light upon the grace of God.

He allows the darkness to be as dark as possible because it is when it is darkest when his grace shines the brightest. Where sin abounded, grace abounded that much more. Many guys know the song "Amazing Grace" and I'm just going to read the first verse to you. It says, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see." And I know many of you, if not all of you, know this song. Non-Christians know this song. So every once in a while you'll hear it in movies, Christian or not. Not too long ago, President Obama stood with the Congress and they were gathered together and they started singing this song.

I mean, in and of itself, the songs and the writing in and of itself is powerful. But when you understand the man who wrote this song and his testimony behind this song, it brings a different light. There's a man named John Newton, born 1725, and he was born, his mother, who was a Puritan, died when he was at the age of seven.

And his father was at most a nominal Christian, probably not a Christian, and happened to be a captain of a boat. And so from a very young age, he followed his father around, eventually became a soldier in the British Army or the Navy. But he had such rebellion in his heart, he kept on getting into trouble one after another.

And eventually he got demoted. He was maybe a sergeant of the boat and he ended up getting demoted. And as a demotion, he asked that he would be transferred to a slave boat. And no one asked for that because the slave boat is actually further down. I mean, it's a nasty place to work.

And he said, "You know what? I don't want to be demoted and humiliated. I'd rather be over there." So he got actively recruited or part of the slave boat and he became a slave trader. And he worked under a particular slave trader who was known for his cruelty. And so he began to carry this out.

Well, one day the ship hits a storm and they're all about to die. And in his desperation, he cries out to God. And he says, "God, if you save me from this, I will convert and I will serve you." God answers his prayer and saves him from that. But that's not where conversion happens.

He doesn't stop the slave trade. He knew himself. No one had to tell him that what he was doing was cruel and it was immoral. But he doesn't stop because that's what he knows. So for several years after that, he would continue on this trade until he gets absolutely sick and he was on his deathbed.

And again, he cries out for mercy, "God, this time I mean it. And if you forgive my sins, I will give my life to you." And he will say that that's when he truly converted. And after his conversion, he leaves the slave trade. He becomes a pastor. And as a pastor, he influences a young politician, William Wilberforce, who actually begins to represent and tries to abolish slavery.

And it is in that context that this was a testimony. This song wasn't simply about just any grace. It was his personal testimony that he wrote in this letter, in this hymn. So let me read that to you again in that light. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." He wasn't just talking about a generic understanding of a sinner.

I don't think there was anybody at that time, Christian or non-Christian, who would have disagreed with him that he was a wretch. He treated human beings. When he says, "a wretch like me," truly he was a wretch. "I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come." So again, you can understand as a person who already faced death twice. Again, this is his testimony.

"Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, 'tis grace has brought me safe thus far. And grace will lead me home." You can see his testimony behind this. "And Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace." In other words, when he encountered this grace, that it was so overwhelming, he says, "my hope and my peace is not here. It's when I die, when my flesh is gone, that's what I look forward to.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine, but God who called me here below will be forever mine." When we read this, in and of itself, it's powerful. When you understand the man, and just how dark his life was, and that it is from that that God saves him.

So when the scripture says that just the right time, sometimes in our lives, God will allow us to take whatever it is that we are in to its logical course, because God is waiting for us to cry out to him. Until we see sin as utterly sinful, we will not see grace as amazing.

And he will allow us to take that path. And that's why he says the law was given. When God's love shines brightest, it is when we least deserve it. Think about your own lives. Think about the time that you remember the most, where the love of God was the most precious to you.

Wasn't it at a time when you felt that you least deserved it, and yet God loved you? God's love is demonstrated toward us in that while we were yet sinners in rebellion, blasphemous, had no interest in serving and honoring God, and that's when he reveals his love toward us.

Romans 8, 2-4 says, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh; and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us." See, that's a follow-up of what he says in verse 24 in Romans.

"Oh, what a wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Just thanks be to God, for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For what the law could not do, Christ did." Law was given to us that sin may be utterly sinful, but that wasn't the ultimate purpose.

The ultimate purpose was so that grace may abound, the darker it became. The third and final is, again, over and beyond. And that's typically how God works. When God knows we need something, and God desires to give us something, he always does abundant and beyond. That's the pattern that we see in the Old Testament, that's the pattern we see in the New Testament.

He says that grace may reign in righteousness, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also may reign through righteousness. When we talk about reign, we don't know what reigning means, because we don't live in a monarchy. The President of the United States is the most powerful politician in the United States, but the United States government has a bunch of check and balances.

So President Obama can't make law by himself. He can introduce it, but he can't make the law. He has the judiciary side of the government, he has the legislative side of the government, he's accountable to his cabinet, he's accountable to his delegates, he's accountable to the people of the country.

He doesn't have a lot of power, because it's designed that way. When we talk about reigning, reigning means like a king who can do whatever he wants. A king can come in and say, "You know, that's my house," and he can take it. He can change the law if he wanted.

Take as many brides as he wants. So the word reign means that it has absolute dominance over everything. And that's the word that is used to describe sin. Sin in death absolutely reigned over everything. You know what that means? Every human relationship is tainted by sin. Your marriage, as much as you come together, "Our marriage is going to be different.

She's going to complete my sentence. She's my soulmate. We're going to share everything." Then as soon as you get married, it's like, "I married a sinner." It tainted everything. And you think like, "Oh, but not with my children. My children are going to be the smartest kid in the world.

They're always going to be obedient." Not like those kids, you know. "My kid's going to be different." And every parent starts out thinking that their kid is going to be different than every other kid. And as soon as you start raising kids, "Huh, he's a sinner." Maybe even more than that kid, you know.

Sin reigned, it says. It reigns in our health. And then we all get surprised when we go to work and our bosses are selfish. And people are slandering us, like, "I can't believe these people are like this." And then you move jobs thinking like, "I can't work here." No, huh, the same here.

You have a bunch of friends, it's like, "Yeah, these people are like this." And then you go over there, "Huh, it's the same over there." It reigns. Every politician that comes in and say, "Those sinners, those guys don't know what they're doing." And they come in. And if we've been watching politics long enough, we have absolutely no confidence.

And I don't think it's because they don't mean it. I think they mean it. They just don't know that they don't have the power. It tainted families. It taints work. It taints even our physical health. It taints marriages. It taints government. It taints everything. Sin and death reigns. No wonder the world is working so hard to find life.

Temporarily, superficially, but everybody, Christian and non-Christian alike, is looking for a better life. But yet the Bible says as long as there is sin, death and penalty reign. But that's not where it ends. He says just as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness. Actually grace reigns.

Grace reigns. Grace just doesn't come in and affect what we do on Sunday. It doesn't just affect our theology. It doesn't just affect a few relationships. But grace has come that it may reign. Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, 15-16, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." I don't think he's being falsely humble when he says I am the foremost.

He really was the foremost. This guy was a murderer. First martyr of the church was killed by this guy, Stephen. But I receive mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.

Paul was not chosen because of his Roman citizenship. Paul was not chosen because he was an expert of the law. Paul was not chosen because he had so much experience traveling back and forth and he would have been the perfect person. Paul was not chosen because he was the best of speakers.

You would think that if God is going to choose a man whose primary task is to take the most important message, "Evangelion," good news, to the Gentile world, that you would think that the best preacher, best philosopher, the most articulate, like don't mess with Paul. He'll tear you up.

He is a lawyer among lawyers. Instead, remember what they said? He said his letters are strong but his appearance is weak. A lot of times we interpret that as he was not a good looking guy. His letters look impressive but when he comes, we're not impressed. I don't think they were referring to his short stature or skinny or he was bald.

Oftentimes, I've heard that so many times through commentaries, after a while, I started believing it. I thought, "Oh, Paul was ugly. He was an ugly man." That's what he means. I don't think they were talking about his physical stature because they were comparing to his letters. It wasn't like they read the letter and it's like, "Oh, he's so handsome." And then they were surprised, "What?" I don't think that was the comparison.

He was looking at the letter and it's so powerful and speak with such authority. And then when he came, remember the way they described Paul in Book of Acts? He had a habit of speaking on and on and on and on and on. If he was such a great speaker, I mean, you would think they would be riveted.

He said on and on. Somebody just falls off and dies. I've had people fall asleep in my sermons before, but no one's died yet. This guy kills people with his sermons. So I don't think they were talking about his stature. I don't think he was like, "Oh, he wasn't a good looking man." I don't think he was the best speaker.

In fact, the reason why Apollos got all this attention is because he was such a great speaker, even though he was a latecomer. Peter, we can understand. He was a direct disciple of Jesus Christ. He was one of the three that saw the transfiguration. We can understand that. We can understand, maybe even Paul.

He was such a great sinner, but Apollos, why did he get all this attention? He was known to be a great speaker. So Paul was not the best speaker. Paul says, "God didn't choose me because of my background, because of my Roman citizenship, because I was connected to the Sanhedrin.

None of that. He said he chose me because I was the worst of sinners." And the reason why he displayed the worst of sinners is this guy who just days ago was about to kill people, now he's proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That that same guy who was responsible for the death of Stephen, now is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That if God can save that man, we all have hope. We all have hope. See, that's what it means when grace came, grace abounded. It reigned. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Not only did he redeem Paul as a human being, he redeemed him, even his works. Before he met Christ, everything that he did was for the purpose of building his righteousness.

But when the power of God came over and overwhelmed him, he said, "I worked harder than anybody else because of this grace." See, grace didn't just say, "Oh, you know, I'm saved, I'm not going to hell, that's great." Paul, overwhelmed by the grace of God because of his great sin, he saw the glory of God probably in a brighter light because of his great sin.

As a result of that, he said, "I worked harder than anybody." He redeemed even his good works for his glory. He was overwhelmed by the grace of God. Overwhelmed by the grace of God. See, it's not just a dabble on Sunday. It's not just in Bible study or when we go out to missions or what we do at a certain point in our life.

It overwhelms us and it changes everything. It changes us in conflict. It changes us when we're wronged. It changes us the way we look at finances. It reverses the curse of mankind. It reverses it thoroughly and completely. Not just a small part of it. He says, "As a result of this overwhelming grace, it ultimately leads to eternal life in Christ." And that's exactly why he said he came.

"I've come to give life and to give this life abundantly." He didn't just say, "I've come to give this life so that you would not just go to hell. I've come to give this life abundantly, that you would be overwhelmed by this life." That's why when we worship God, it is not out of duty.

It's not because a Christian has to do this. No. Should we do it? Of course we should do it. Should we read our Bibles? Of course we should read our Bibles. Should we pray and forgive? Yes, we ought to pray and forgive. But what God desires from us is to be so overwhelmed by the grace of God that people can't keep you away from worshiping God.

That you desire to be in the Word of God because that's where you find life. In the midst of darkness in this world, think about what's happening in the Middle East today. I mean, people are being beheaded, churches are being blown up, Christians are being raped, and yet in the context of all of that, the Scripture says people are seeing Christ as a Savior more powerfully today in that area than in the last hundred years of mission endeavor.

And some of you guys may have read the same articles I have. They said there's more Muslims, moderate Muslims, who are turning to Christ than any other modern time that we can think of. In the midst of beheading, in the midst of persecution, where His grace is overwhelming them and they're coming to Christ.

We are to be overwhelmed by the grace of God. That our relationship is not done grudgingly because He loved us. I'm going to finish with a story that I told years ago, and some of you guys may remember, some of you guys may not. It's the how the birds got their wings.

And I know some of you guys are going to roll your eyes because, oh, again. But I thought it would be appropriate for today as I wrap up this sermon about how the birds got their wings. The birds are pretty pathetic creatures without their wings. They got their little beak and little, you know, little stem legs.

And because of that, they are targeted, you know, in the jungle. So they were the servants of the monkeys. They carry the bananas for them wherever they want them to take it. So pretty pathetic creatures, right? So the one day the angels were flying above and they see and they have pity on them.

So the angels decide, hey, well, let's go down there and sacrifice and give them our wings. So the angels come out and they sacrifice, take their wings off and give it to them. But initially they don't understand what these wings are. So they take these wings and it's enough to carry the bananas.

But now we've got to carry these burdensome wings. They're even heavier than bananas. So they're walking and trying to run away from the monkeys and they're running into the trees with their wings. It's like, what is this? What a cruel joke. Our life is hard enough as it is.

And now you give us now on top of that, we have to carry these wings. And so those who didn't understand what they were, they died off. And that's why they're no longer here. And that's why we only have birds that have wings. A few of them, some of you guys are so serious.

It's not a real story, all right? Some of these birds, remember it's like, hey, wait a second. I remember those angels were flying around. Could it possibly be that the wings were the reason why they were able to fly? Wouldn't it be awesome? I mean, you could fly like they flew.

So they decided to take a chance. And what have we got to lose, right? The worst case scenario, we die and we're no longer slaves in the jungle. So some of them go up to the highest part of the jungle and they fly off and they spread their wings and they begin to fly.

So take your bananas. So they became these majestic creatures who are flying. And again, that's how the birds got their wings. Sometimes as Christians, we take the grace of God and make it a burden. We may worship a burden. We make prayer a burden. Make fellowship a burden. And evangelism a burden.

Not recognizing that this is a gift that was given to us for life. Sometimes we don't recognize what it is. God gave us this so that we will be overwhelmed by the love of God. Let me read you a verse before I wrap up and ask the team to come up.

In Isaiah 40, 29-31, you guys know this passage well. It says, "He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youth shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted. But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint." I pray that the grace of God would overwhelm us. That everything that we do would simply be a reasonable response to the mercy that he showed us. Would you take a few minutes to pray with us?

Take some time to reflect upon the Lord. If the grace of God has become a burden to you, take a minute to take a step back and to really come before the Lord and ask the Lord to open your eyes. You may again come to that same love that saved you.

Remember the height from which you had fallen, repent and redo the things that you did at first. As our worship team leads us, let's take some time to reflect and come before the Lord and surrender that our life that God desires for us may be abundant enough. So let's take some time to pray.

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