Grace in new beginnings

January 7, 2024
​Speaker Doug Cox

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It's important  to teach God's ways.  It's  not always important to us to learn God's ways.  The title of my message is Grace and New Beginnings.  And we hear a lot about grace in this church, other churches. But I want to turn to a very familiar verse in Ephesians  2:8.  This is just a great verse. It's so clear.  Oh, one bag of Ephesians. I have a lot of notes in my Bibles. This is what my Bible looks like. It's got sticky notes, things hanging out the edge, I always, when I write a note down, I can see who gave the note and what month and year.  I have that on here. Some are from 1870, no. God's word is precious. Not always, though.  There were periods in my life when I went through, when I would read God's Word to be inspired and hear Him. Nothing.  And when I went to three Bible colleges altogether, but  I remember one of my teachers at, Grace Bible College, that Milwaukee moved over in 62 and I moved with it. Reminded us don't let the Bible become a textbook and it can be easy. 

And I would read.  I think I was pastoring the O'Connell Falls Bible Church at that time.  With my wife, Sonia, my new wife. Yeah. And she was the piano player, but there was nothing. And I'm supposed to be the pastor and come up with a message.  And I would come up with a message, but I wouldn't tell you. For me, it was a dry message. It was like drinking sand or something, just couldn't.  And that went on for a few months,  did not just pass.  And then suddenly, I remember reading a portion of scripture and I was reading a verse, I do not remember what that verse was, but I was reading a verse and no matter,  uh,  how many times I read it, it was like there was a new  portion for me from God  at every other word.

It was just like, it just blessed my socks off.  And it has always been that way. And you know, when you're in. In your Christian life and people are expecting you to be just so exciting and you're not,  um, still God's word is so precious to me. It is how God speaks to me. I have said this before, but there's many ways God speaks to us. It was said this morning by somebody. But God  speaks to me when I read his word.  Now I'm old school. My phone is a wind up kind, you know, so I like to have the word of God in front of me and touch the pages and watch my hand go down. And I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm reading. You know, okay, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And all of a sudden my neighbor starts cutting the grass, oh, that's right, I've got to change the oil in that yeah, I've got, oh yeah, okay. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what honey? Yep, well, I'm sorry I forgot, alright, yep, huh?  Blessed be the Lord and Father of us. And it takes me forever sometimes to get through a portion. I'll go down one side, but still while I'm reading, God has answered some questions I had and been praying about that I, and you know, it's just like, I would like to look around the room.  Where are you, God? You're talking to me.  And He is talking to you.  But God speaks to me when I read God's word, when I am in prayer with him, through other Christian people, just talking to them, and all of a sudden I just notice,  Oh, that's, that's interesting. You know, God is letting me know something, and then the final word is circumstances.  Like, no, a red Maserati convertible is not a family car.  It's circumstances.  It didn't take much wisdom to find that out.  But the verse here in Ephesians 2: 8, and 9. For by grace, overused word, underappreciated, and certainly underapplied. 

As a police officer, we go through training and it's called EVOC training. And we, we learned to back up at 30 miles an hour. Oh, that's something.  In a parking lot.  Ooh. And that's why you'll see a police officer always backs in their squad.  So if they get called, they can go out, not go back up. When, but 20% of what we learn is our driving,  80%.  And in our department we have 105 officers, five captains and a chief.  You cannot use your cell phone  unless you get outta your squad.  Because, otherwise, I'm sure all of you don't use your cell phones in a car and you notice everything passing you.  It's just that important. But here God  is applying grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. 

And there's a lot of people that, They are God. They're not humble enough.  Every once in a while, God humbles me in a spectacular way. And it's usually through my blessed little Sonia, That gets me back on track.  My dad always said, Doug, if you talk any more about yourself, your head's getting bigger. Pretty soon your feet get smaller. You just tip over. For by grace, you have been saved through faith.  That faith  is the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. That faith is your faith.  And, God speaks to me through his spirit into my spirit. You have a spirit. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ,  you have the Holy Spirit.  If you don't know, you still have a spirit,  and that's God directing you in that spirit,  drawing you to Christ as your savior. If you're not saved this morning,  how people can say no to the Lord is pretty easy. How the Lord can stand by and let them say no is just unthinkable to me.  But it happens  for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Is that clock going that fast? Um,  it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. I'd like you to take your Bibles and turn to Psalm. Psalms  119. You shouldn't be able to miss it. It's the longest chapter,  but, uh, Psalms 119, starting at verse 30. I have so many little notes in this Bible. 

All right.  And I'm going to read these, 40 verses and this will connect with the message.  I have chosen the way of truth, Psalms 119 verse 30.  Your judgments I have laid before me, I cling to your testimonies. O Lord, do not put me to shame. I will run in the way of your commandments,  and you shall enlarge my heart. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes.  And I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.  Make me walk in the path of your commandments  or I delight in it. I wish to incline my heart to your testimonies and not  to covetousness. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things.  And revive me in your way.  Establish your word to your servant who is devoted to fearing you.  Turn away my reproach from which I dread,  and your judgments are good. Behold, I long for your precepts. Revive me in your righteousness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,  help me. Amen.  To give the message you gave to me.  Love being here.  And speaking in Jesus name. Amen.  Now I'm going to ask your indulgence.  Now I have to ask permission.  I'd like to take a picture of the church that I spoke to. And that's how I pray for people. Is that alright? Amen. Okay, sir, you can go. 

Then Sonia,  some of the churches, the  pulpits, it's all by itself. If you go back far enough, you'll disappear.  You think that's funny? Thank you.  When life throws you a challenge, and you're in a challenge,  where does your strength come from? In the business world, and I've been there,  I use the same  rules  that I use when working with churches or  working at camp.  I want to share with you how to have a strong life, to have a perspective and power that carries you through the storms, to have a perspective and power that carries you through the storms and a foundation of wisdom that will give you life directions, truthfulness and peace. It starts with a daily conversation with Jesus Christ in prayer.  When I, when we were at camp for 20 years and when we Northern Grace  and  when our Children were young,  Five minutes was a long time for devotions. Unless you did it as a family at the table. A spirit filled life is a life lived through us  by God, the Holy Spirit.  You can't do it by yourself.  The goal is to demonstrate and express the character of God,  the Son, Jesus Christ.  He's not a character.  Characters who you are,  conduct is what you actually do.  Prayer is the beginning and sustaining of an intimate and personal relationship with God, the father,  a lot of, especially young people. They don't know that  there's music playing all the time.  And some of these, uh, places Sonia and I go into are, we went out on a date.  And this year we'll be married 60 years. We went out on a date on Friday night and the music was terrible and loud, um,  but an intimate, personal relationship with God, the Father. The problem with this is. that most people are praying  who are not saved.  They really have no connection with God, the father. He standing right next to him. Are you listening to me?  And they don't  hear that.  Second, save people often have so much sin in their lives. It just grounds out God's voice. A lot of the Christians are so guilty because they don't know that God, when they trusted Christ, he forgave their sin, past, present, and future.  But he does something far better. He forgets the sin. We can't do that.  And we can't for a purpose, so that life's challenges, life's results.  The end result, we need to remember, don't do that again,  but it's forgiven.

So if you get up in the morning and you say to God, oh man, Lord, I'm so sorry. I really botched that up and I sinned and I really need your forgiveness, and you're talking that way. He's standing there and saying, Doug, what are you talking about?  Yesterday? I forgave that sin. a long time ago. What are we going to do today? But God, it's a problem. It's not a problem. 

Work with me today. 

Some people pray for selfish things, not praying for other people,  but themselves only, and when your life is only about yourself, um, you're going to have trouble identifying with God. Finally, not praying for the will of God to be done in their lives.  They're scared of that.  God, I want to be in your will. Show me what to do.  And God is saying, here's what to do. I can't see it.  You know, we just, we don't want the will of God in our lives. And for that reason, we are often left lonely.  Well,  um, oh yes, just a minute here. I should have moved the pulpit up. All right.  Well, good morning again.  I wonder how each of you are this morning.  Last week was a tough week for me.  Working with the Lord.  I needed encouragement.  I got it.  I wonder why you came to church this morning.  If you came with questions about yourself, your future, your spiritual needs, or the Bible, I hope you find those answers this morning. If not, let's meet later. I'm only 77 miles away.  Uh, we, I'll come up here and meet and have coffee together and talk. I probably can't help you with any answers to your security, your money.  Your physical needs are healing,  but I can point you to a person who can begin to answer those questions or take you all the way through the answers.  Jesus Christ is present here.  He is right here.  Of course, his top of his tennis shoes are about this  pretty big. In Philippians, it tells us to pray. With all supplications.  Do you know what that word means?  Beating on the chest of Jesus Christ saying, do you understand the problems or the matter or the family breakup that I'm working with? Do you understand?  And he'll answer,  but that's how we should pray. It is quiet here this morning. Thank you for that.  Um,  Only in the noise of the furnace, well we probably can't hear it, you have hydronic heating, I noticed that.  And there's probably a car driving by once in a while, but you're not on, like, our church  on Mayfair, It's a four lane highway.  Very busy. Police department on this end, fire department on that end. So Pilgrim Road is always busy. And apart from my irritating voice speaking to you this morning,  it's quiet.  But Jesus Christ is here.  He's filled every pew seat that is not filled with a human being here this morning. 

We joined him here today. He never left last Sunday. 

He's in your home.  In your car. At work.  Now,  however,  if he chose  to speak to you today,  chose  to make himself felt in your spirit,  he might give you some commands,  six of them. 
Oh, that's what we read.  I'll pass that. I'm embarrassed. I usually have my own laptop here.  There they are.  So if Jesus Christ came to you and spoke to you this morning, he'd say, he possibly would say,  and he would speak to you in your spirit.  I can't wait for heaven. He could come before this service is over. Fine. I'm there. I'm gone. First 10, 000 years, just admire his, his face and his words.  I look forward to the Lord coming.  The first is, stop and acknowledge  God the Son is here with you. Just before your devotions prayer, and I pray in the car, I sing in the car, much to the chagrin of people passing me by, that God is really here with me. He's really here. The Seat light should, you know, the bag there that blows  that light should go off because God is sitting there, but of course it won't.  Second, he wants us to understand that he really is who he says he is. He will perform miracles. He will do things,  but he'll answer according to his will. Even when Jesus Christ was here on earth. He was here to do two things.  One, follow the will of God, his father. And second, follow the will of God, his father.  And things were not always just as he would have them.  But he was a servant and he was obedient. 

Third, think what to do. Excuse me. Think what you do that he doesn't accept.  In our department, I'm known as the reverend  because I don't swear and every police officer probably knows every swear word  that's said,  but if you don't need to use swear words, that just irritates people beyond, beyond, beyond. Where other officers can say about five words and, you know, and get this person to understand. I have about 15 to 20 that I say.  Look into your Bible and know that it is his living word full of power and truth.  I expect God's word to speak to me when I read it. I expect God to speak to me because it's his living word  and read his word every day so he can speak to your heart and mind and guide you. I have down on the seat there next to Randy, one of the four devotionals I read every day.  I read our daily bread.  I like it. I read, In Touch with Dr. Stanley, the monthly. I read, Abraham Lincoln's Personal Diary, printed in 1852.  Well, I have a reprint, not the 1852 one and I like that.  And then finally, the preciousness. of Max Licato's Grace for the Moment.  And if you want to, you can look at that. And I fold the page over when it's a really good one, and then I'll write in it. 

And every once in a while I'll be reading someone else's book, and all of a sudden Sonia will say,  Doug, that's John's book. What are you writing in his book for? Oh!  Yeah.  Too late. But that book, uh, is well worn and that is two years old. Um,  it's fun to be in God's Word and devotionals.  Does it seem likely that God would come here actually and talk to us this morning or talk to you and give you these six commands? 

No.  He could,  but he doesn't. 

In Acts chapter,  nine, verses, three to sixteen.  There was a man,  who was not a Christian,  who was persecuting the Christians.  Acts nine, verses three to sixteen.  There it is.  And we can't read it all today because the clock is speeding up but  here's the apostle Paul,  coming in to Damascus and, on the way in, God produces his own laser light show  and, blinds Paul. And from then he goes to a street in In Damascus called  Straight.  If you go to Damascus  right now,  there's a street called Straight.  Anyways,  then he spends time with God.  And then those three years that he spent in Arabia under God's teaching.  But here in your Bible is recorded just such an occurrence where God met Adam someone.  And it was not happenstance because God wanted to use Paul. Would you call a pastor to this church who killed Christians?  Don't answer now. But seriously, God is not afraid of using  people for his work.  You included, and I'm impressed with the number of people. who were here when I came at quarter to nine. He uses you  and he'll use you as this church moves forward and grows. He will. 

It was an appointment of God  to meet an evil man  for whom Jesus had died for his sin. 

If God is leading you by your spirit, His spirit with your spirit this morning.  Turn and read that.  And if he is wanting to talk to you, uh, you just forget the rest of my message and you go read acts three,  nine, three to 16.  Would you follow the Lord's direction in your life? Having heard the son of God speak to you. Man,  I think I would,  but boy, there's instances of his own disciples that didn't listen to him.  Saul, who became Paul, did as the Lord directed. If God is speaking to you in your heart, in your mind, in your soul, but mainly your spirit. Listen,  get used to knowing when God is talking to you. Are you feeling a little uncomfortable this morning with Jesus sitting right next to you?  Get to know when you know God is near. As I said this, past week has been a tough one.  About three weeks ago, Sonia and I had a disagreement.  I know it's impossible.  And we spent time working through that  and I'll be 82 this summer.  I was looking through a Christian bookstore catalog and found a wall plaque.  And that said what we need to practice more in our lives.

And I think we do. But to what degree? 

So I called and they sent out a plaque and I got it. It's the wrong one.  I thought, you want me to use this one, God? And I sent it back and they sent me another one.  And it was a Christmas present from Sonia. I don't know about you, but I buy my presents, she buys hers. And then we, we pack it all up and then when we open it, I don't know if that's a lie or what. Oh, wow.  then right after that, Pastor Kern from my church, called and asked if I would handle the next service and give the morning message.  And I was honored. And I said, yes,  God spoke to my heart and mine. And I knew  what the theme of that message would be.  And, Randy, at this time, I'd like you to pass that out. Can you turn it on? No? If there's anything can go wrong in a church. 

Nope.  Nope. 

The plaque here.  The plaque was outside as you entered this morning.  And, See how Satan can take over. It's Teach Me  Your Ways plaque with 11 points and we have 12 minutes about it. 

Oh, it is on. Alright. 

Yep. 

Alright.  Thank you, sir.  I assume somebody's back there. Maybe the Lord is working. I have to stay close to this mic. Well, that's the plaque.  And, Sonia and I, even though it's just the two of us, Our family will.  We will follow this.  And now it hangs in our bedroom.  So every time we walk out, not in, but every time we walk out, there's the plaque.  And, it's well used.  The first, The first is love and accept one another.  And these two portions of scripture, I'm gonna come down here.  Scary. Romans 14. 1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but do not dispute over doubtful faiths.  Love one another  finally Sonya and I, we have,  she has, two angels that are leaning over. Some of you may have seen this over the years. It's from Norway, so it's gotta be perfect.  And, if one of us disagrees,  Then the other one turns their angel away and says, There's no kissing. It's doubtful things.  The Maserati convertible.  Romans 15:7. Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God.  And that's tough. And no other counseling with Christian couples that one's separated from the boys.  It's hard to love some people.  People I don't like, almost hate. That's a fine line there.  I pray for. I'm praying for people in this church. Paul, he's not one of them. We should pray for one another.  In Philippians, it says in verses three and four of chapter one. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of prayer of mine, making requests for you with all joy, who was Paul's joy? Everybody in the churches that he had. You are my joy.  1 Timothy 2:1 Therefore I assert first of all that supplication  if you don't understand who I am God, I'm hurting.  And prayers, intercessions, giving thanks be made to all. For all.  Next, tell the truth to each other. Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.  As Christians, we are members of one another.  Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds.  We have two natures. You can never push the old nature away completely.  But we have a new nature. 

Be kind to one another.  Colossians 3:12 Therefore has the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies. Kindness, kindness,  kindness.  Humility, meekness, and long suffering. 1 Thessalonians 5, 15. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. And you don't need to be a Christian to know the importance of kindness.  Fred Rogers.  There are three ways to the ultimate success. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.  Bring joy, not happiness, joy,  to each other.  Proverbs 23:25. Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice. I grew up in a generation when, hey,  um, Mom and Dad were very important. I still can't play with play cards. I don't know. Zero. Zero. I don't know. We know better now. But, well, I still can. Pharaoh 1:7,  For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brethren. Serve one another.  Acts 20:35. I have shown  You in every way, by laboring like this, it was a temptation to make sales,  that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said it is more blessed to give than to receive.  It's really important. When you make someone's life  important, if they have a need and it's your favorite thing, give it to them. 

Never regret it. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and keep one's self unspotted from the world.  Be patient.  Be patient.  Probably 90 percent of the couples I deal with,  one of them, or both, are not patient.  Be patient with each other. Be patience for two.  With all holiness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing one another in love. Colossians 3:13 Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you must do. Forbearing one another, even in this church.  And my family  still is a powerful command.  Comfort one another. 2 Corinthians 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord  Jesus Christ. The Father of mercies and God of all comfort.  Who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any  with a comfort with which we were ourselves are comforted by God. Relation six two,  bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And I want you to know second Corinthians one, three, and four. For some people at certain times, maybe up to five years or some, I can't come for that.  They will hold a brush, unforgiving sin or something. They'll hold it like a badge of honor. Those badges will all fall off when we go to heaven. You can come right now.  Forgive one another.  Let's just use the center one there. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, kindhearted. Forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you. That's terrible. Did you read the scripture this morning?  We've covered that first. Excellent. Thanks. 

Forgiveness is a strange thing and can sometimes be easier to forgive our enemies than our friends. It can be hardest of all to forgive people we love.  Like all of life's important skills, the ability to forgive and the capacity to let go of resentments most likely take work  very early in our lives.  Be generous with each other. He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.  Let them do good, that they may be richly good works, ready to give, willing to share.  Honor. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor giving preference to one another. Not just the pretty people, not just the good people only. Alright, now, I make a special effort to be good to people that other people may not Of course, when you're wearing a uniform, you're being godly and up so. They knew it better.  All right. But I honor people that would, someone else would just pass by. Philippians. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.  That can be a problem, right? Clarence Thomas,  U. S. Supreme Court Justice. Sometimes we're called to do what we must do.  And it's our duty then to simply allow that will to be done. Abraham Lincoln said, Do the right thing.  Because you know it's right. Do all things without complaining. What? Really?  And dispute that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Among whom you shine as lights in the world. You have the core group of a great church. I  don't know all your names, but I've seen you many times. 

You need to invite other people to come to this church.  God will let you bring them if they agree.  Even though the speaker is not your regular pastor. You're honoring God with what He's done here.  By assuming better things are coming. It may take a while.  I'm sorry to announce that you are far better than many pastors. They may actually say no to a call here.  And it's because God  He is so courteous,  so polite,  that if that's their will,  so be it.  And then he'll choose someone better. I praise God for each and every one of you. My wife's over there, I ask her to come up  and stand with me.  And, um, just show our appreciation by saying we love you.  And the other grace churches in Wisconsin who may or may not know everything about what's going on here.  Well,  in the Philippines, you know how they start a new church. 

Here's a church in the Philippines. And I go on there often when I was on the board of things that come mission  and here's a church and they want to start another church.  And there are 621 churches in race churches  in the Philippines.  So they decide  to start a new church, not split,  start a new church. And they go and take the property and  they'll start to build a building or use a building that's available. And then this church financially supports that church and sends some of their people there. to populate it.  And then from, um, the Bible Institute in the Philippines, they'll graduate people, and three of those will go to that church  to, as an intern, to get it and help it get going. And the oldest church in the Philippines I spoke to in,  Easter morning, 2011.  And I remember because it was the last of four churches, four same, messages. And every church always had a big meal before the service. Well, by the time I got to that church, in the afternoon about 2:30, and Ben Anderson was sitting next to me, telling me I have to eat, they're not going to start until you eat.

So I pushed up on my plate, and then I started mumbling.  But that church was the original church.  Their church split,  originally, in 2011,  right before Easter. Then the group that split and, off, who stayed with, instead of a contemporary service, they stayed with a traditional service. That church went and built a new church. And in two years they had more people than the church they elected.  Was that a hard decision? Whoa!  It was. But trust God.  Trust the Lord. He loves you.  It's like when you go to your parents and ask them how old and you hug them and say, I love you. Or how young, I love you Dad.  Means a lot.  Let's close this prayer. 

Really? Why is this going on? 

For your glory and honor,  we come before you and ask you to guide with wisdom,  not only this elder board,  but the people in this church.  Can I honor their faithfulness to you? Show them along the way your hand in things that haven't been,  and bless them  for Jesus Christ our Savior, God the Son,  for God the Holy Spirit, and for you, God the Father.  Amen.