In this sermon titled "People Grace," the preacher addresses the topic of enduring hardships and finding comfort in God's grace. The sermon begins with a prayer for all those who are hurting and emphasizes God's love for everyone. The preacher then reads from Hebrews 4:14-16, highlighting the role of Jesus as our high priest. The sermon explores the concept of "people grace," which refers to the dispensing of spiritual revelation and strength during times of testing and calamity. The preacher shares personal experiences of witnessing the grace of God in difficult situations and encourages listeners to trust in God's sustaining power.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. Hebrews, the fourth chapter, if you will, please. Hebrews, the fourth chapter. Our message tonight is entitled, People Grace. People Grace. Let's go to verses 14 through 16, if you will, please. Hebrews, the fourth chapter, 14. Getting to verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Read aloud with me verse 16, please, if you have King James especially. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now, Lord, you know I love you, and you know this people love you. And we need to hear from heaven. Lord, we need to hear a word that quickens our spirits. We can't quicken our own spirits. We can't bring life out of some kind of death that is set into our own hearts by the season or by our feelings. And Lord, we don't live by feelings, we live by faith. And we pray, Holy Spirit, that you come down now in a very special way. And Lord, take the word and mold us and shape us. Lord, it is more and more evident to me that it is truth alone that sets people free. Lord, in times of difficulty and trouble and calamity and strife, only our confidence in your word, only the knowledge of the word, and only the inworking of that word can give life and strength and sustenance. Now, Lord, anoint me. You've cleansed my heart. We come through the blood of Jesus. We come through grace. Now, Lord Jesus, take what little I have and multiply it to your honor and to your glory, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. We've just read that we have a great high priest. He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And that word in Greek, touched, means sympathy resulting from experiencing the same kind of pain. He is touched because he's been there. There's nothing that you and I experience that he has not experienced in one way or another. He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. In other words, he sympathizes with us having been there, having done that, having tasted it, having experienced it, so he knows exactly how to administer comfort. Our high priest has been personally touched by every conceivable kind of calamity, every kind of discipline, every kind of trouble that has befallen any of us. Our deepest pains, confusion, our cups of disparities tasted it all. And he says, let us therefore come boldly. In other words, because I'm touched, because I've been there, because I know what you're going through, I want you to come boldly to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. I want to talk to you about finding this grace, finding grace in the time of need. Now, we obtain mercy, but we find grace. One is a gift, and then the other is something that we find. And I'll show you, hopefully, how we find that. Now, I've heard all the definitions of grace. Now, please excuse me if I don't preach like I usually do. I'm gaining back my strength, but still voiced a little weak. But if you believe that, I just might get excited. I don't know. I've heard all the definitions of grace, you know, unmerited favor and special love and goodness of God. But this past week, when I was in Virginia, in Charlottesville, where my daughter's daughter, our granddaughter, Tiffany, 11 years old, was being operated for brain tumor, and they told us it was malignant. Before we got the word and were waiting, it didn't matter to me what the theological meaning of grace was. For me, grace was just a cry in my heart, Oh, God, help us, help Gwen, help me, help Debbie, help Bonnie, help all of us, our family, to receive the word without panic, with the trust of the Lord, knowing that he does all things right. Just grace to endure. It was just, Lord, it's a strength. It's something I need now because, you know, this is the eighth time I heard it, you know, malignant. And in that special time of waiting, my cry, Lord, you told me to come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in the time of need. And I know I've obtained that mercy. You've saved me. I know the saving power and the mercy our whole family does. But now, Lord, we had seen panic all through the place. Every word that comes, people just falling apart and some screaming and yelling when they get the report. So I said, God, grace, just that peace to be a testimony to people. God, give us inner strength to face what we're going to hear. And let us have the peace of God. That was what grace meant to me, because it had come up so suddenly, because just a week before we heard that, in fact, a day before we got the news, we were in the dining room and I turned to Gwyneth and said, You know, life is so fragile. Any day we could get a call would change your whole life. That call came the next day. And it did change. It keeps changing our lives. But you see, life is very, very fragile. And then suddenly comes a torrent of bad news. Brain tumor, large one, malignant, one of the worst kinds and possibly metastasizing. But, you know, I was driven to the book of Job and I was reading the book of Job. Here's a godly man with a close knit family like ours, a very close knit family. He had daily prayer, the Bible said. He had an altar, so he had family altar every day. And even when his children were not present, he sacrificed for them, the Scripture says, in case they sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Now, here's a righteous man who had no idea what was to come. He had no idea of this incredible thing that was happening in heaven between Satan and God regarding himself. And this very righteous man, in one day, three servants come. In fact, I want you to turn to Job, the first chapter. And I want you to picture this before we go any further, if you will, please. And, you know, it's amazing how comforting Job becomes when you're going through a trial. I hadn't read it as diligently as I've been reading it in the past week. But Job, the first chapter, verse 13, beginning to read. There was a day when his sons and daughters. Now, remember, he had three daughters and seven sons. There were ten children. There was a day. Folks, all this happened in one day. There was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. There came a messenger unto Job and said, the oxen were plowing, the asses feeding beside them. The Sabians fell upon them, took them away. They have slain thy servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell you. While he was yet speaking. Now, this is within a 24 hour period. While he was yet speaking, there came also another. He said, the fire of God has fallen from heaven, has burned up the sheep, the servants, and consumed them. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Now, remember, Job's wife is hearing this. A fire from God has fallen from heaven, burned up the sheep. In other words, God did it, she's saying. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and carried them away. And slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. And while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. Behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, a cyclone, in other words, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they're all dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell thee. Then Job arose and went to rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. He said, naked came I out of my mother's womb, naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all of this Job sinned not, nor church God foolishly. You see, when a sudden calamity comes, as we see in this picture, I see only two alternatives. The only two alternatives as a Christian. I've seen these two alternatives among Christians. One alternative was taken by Job's wife and one by Job himself. Now, in a single day, this calamity strikes. Every servant is gone, every dear handmaiden of Job's wife. You know, he had a very large entourage of people who worked for him with him in the household, and people had become very close to you, and they had all been gone. And not only all of those close people who worked with Job and his wife, and all the dear ones they'd learned to love and appreciate over the years, they're all gone. And the word, Job's wife, I'm sure, can't comprehend it. But when finally the word comes, a cyclone came, and all ten of your children are gone, they're dead. At that very moment, Job's wife died. There was an inner death. She literally died because she was living, but yet she was dead. If you lost ten children in one day, and everything else is gone, everything is gone in one day, it might be that you would be at that place, too, that's called, they refuse comfort. She refused to be comforted. She refused to be consoled. She literally died. We know that because very shortly later, Job is stricken from head to toe with boils, and he's sitting in an ash heap with a piece of broken pottery, scraping his boils. This woman, you see, I don't blame this woman. And you're going to see the grace of God in this, so incredible grace of God. And she sees her husband in such a condition that three of his so-called friends, his best friends, came. They didn't even recognize him. They didn't recognize him. It was such an awful sight. They sat for seven days nearby, just weeping, looking at him and weeping, sorrowing. They couldn't look at him. And this dead woman, this woman is so full of grief. This woman is so taken back. Everything's gone. No chance of a grandchild again. No chance of laughter or joy again in her life. Sleepless nights and wishing she were dead. And then she looks at her husband, and she remembers the words, the fire of God has fallen from heaven and is consumed. The fire of God has fallen. And she goes to her husband. Here's a man, the Bible said, who's in great grief, great grief. He's not charging God foolishly, but he's wishing he were dead. Or you read his chapter, he said, oh, I curse the day I was born. Oh, that I had died in the womb. Oh, that I had died so that I could escape this kind of confusion, this awful thing that has happened that I don't understand. Because the Lord had told him, he said, it's not because of your iniquity. And your prayer is pure. He was told his prayer was pure and that this was not because of iniquity in his heart. And he is in need of comfort. His friends are over here looking at him in despair and weeping. And here comes his wife face to face. And she says these words to Job. She said, do you still hold on to your integrity? Now, she's inferring two things. She said, first of all, Job, what horrible sin are you hiding in your life? Are you trying to tell me you're a man of integrity? What did you do that's brought down this terrible thing on our life? What sin have you committed? Is it adultery? Have you looked at maids? And I believe that's what she was inferring. Because later, in a chapter two later, you hear Job say, I have not, my eyes have not looked upon a maiden. And so here she is accusing him because she is so in despair. Job, I can't figure this out. It says God, that man said God sent a fire from heaven. And the second inference is, is this how your God treats righteous people? We've had daily prayer. We've had altar services. We pray daily with our children. We have blessed the poor. We have done everything righteously. You are known as the most righteous man on the face of the earth. And God has confirmed that. Job, do you still say that we are righteous people? Because if we're righteous people, why did God take everything from us? Why would God rob us of that which is most precious to us? Do you still hold your integrity? Well, I'll tell you, it's a battle with the enemy when tragedy strikes your family or many of you who have gone through that. And there's been some kind of a sudden thing, or maybe you buried a child or you buried a husband or buried a wife. And you know what it's like, how the devil comes and accuses you and blaming you. How terrible a battle Gwen has fought after her five operations of cancer and then her two daughters with cancer. And feeling the guilt the enemy tried to place on her. You passed it down to your children. She had to fight that with even Tiffany. And in the room I told the doctor, I wanted to hear this because I knew what was going on in Gwen's mind. I passed it down now to my granddaughter. And the doctor said exactly what I wanted to hear. He said, no, this has nothing to do with the gene pool. This is something that is not inherited. And I know Gwen was relieved when she heard that. But you know, here's a woman completely now, a dead, absolutely dead woman. What a cutting, awful thing when she said, Job, curse God and die. In other words, I'm already dead. I've already cursed him. What else is there left? Better we die and be with our children. Curse God and die. I remember telling this story. I was flying last year. I believe it was home from Florida. And a young lady was sitting next to me. And I noticed her sobbing quietly. And I turned and said, can I help you? I'm a minister. I see you crying. She said, I can't believe in your God. I said, what do you mean? She said, I just came from my father's funeral. I live in New York, but I just flew down here. My dad was the most giving person you could ever meet. He helped the poor. He gave. He was a pure. He was a good man. Not a Christian, just a good man. And she says, I can't understand. My dad suddenly was taken, just taken from me. I can't accept a God who kills good fathers. Folks, there's not much I could say to her. I tried, but I couldn't get through to her. And she's now angry at God. She took the alternative that Job's wife took. And folks, that happens sometimes. When you begin to blame God, you can spin off. You can spin off into a despair. You can be alive and still be dead. The most horrible alternative you can take when anything comes suddenly to your home. When there's a calamity or there's a situation that strikes sudden illness. And Sister Catherine's here from the Bible school. They're two wonderful girls, two sisters in the school. They have a third sister. And it's a godly family. Godly family. And dad and mom were visiting at the school about six weeks ago, four or five weeks ago. And they got a telephone call. The third daughter was suddenly killed in a car accident. But, you know, the peace of God came over those people. The amazing thing is she'd had a struggle finding her place in the Lord. And they prayed and prayed for her. And she had just wholeheartedly turned to the Lord the week before and had just signed up to come to the Bible school. And the Lord gave a revelation to those parents that God had a plan. A special plan. Brought her into the kingdom of God and saved her. He knew everything. There's a piece. I tried to call them today because I wanted to get a little more of the story for this. And you say, when you preach like this or talk like this, you scare me. A calamity might happen to me. I might lose one of my children or thing. You know, Job said, the thing I feared came upon me. Well, folks, what came upon Job had nothing to do with his fear. Nothing whatsoever. God had a plan all along. So don't fret about that. Don't think about that whatsoever. That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. But Job chose the right alternative. Job trusted in God in the midst of his grief and his overwhelming sorrow. He said, though you slay me, Lord, yet I'm going to trust you. He was saying, yes, I'm grieving. Yes, I'm hurting. It's very great that the grief I'm going through. Yes, he wished he were dead at this time. He couldn't sleep. Yes, the pain was unbearable. And he longed for death. But yet he says, in effect, even if these boils take me to the grave, I am not going to give up in my confidence that God knows what he's doing. I will not give up my confidence in God. In God I trust. Though he slay me even. I don't know, understand this, anything about it. But if that happens to me, yet I believe him and trust him. Now, I've experienced grief at times that I said like David, oh, that I had wings. And come on, you've said that. I'll bet everybody in this house has said that at one time. Oh, that I had wings like a dove that I could escape this windy tempest. I wish sometimes I had wings and I could just fly away into some quiet desert and not hear one sound of grief or pain. But folks, that's not life. That's not reality. But I've never experienced this depth of what Job went through. I've never experienced that kind of thing where I wished I were dead. A sister from Arkansas wrote, we lost a daughter to cancer. She was five years old. And now our son is undergoing major surgery for lung cancer. They've just found 50 tumors in his lung. I've been filled with anger and doubt for some time now, but especially lately. But this recently got your latest newsletter, Brother Davis, entitled, You don't have to understand your afflictions, you've got grace. Folks, God was preparing me. If you remember in the last five weeks, I've preached three messages about suffering. And he was preparing my own heart. She said, when I read that, oh, the precious timing of the Lord. God has given me relief, and now I'm praying to understand the grace of God you speak about. The grace of God. I'm trying to understand that. She said, now I have peace, and I'm beginning to understand about the grace of God. You go into any hospital, you walk the halls, like I did recently, and you see these two alternatives. You see Christians, and most of them are Christians. Down there, just about everybody's a Baptist or Pentecostal. That's the Bible Belt. And you walk across one room, and they've just got word of some little girl who had just spun out of. She looked like she was three or four years old and just spun out. And she was just spouting foolishness. She just spun out mentally. And then you go to another room, and you see somebody that's just gotten word the doctor's in, and the horrible sense of despair and anger at God. Always blaming God. Immediately, why did God do this? And they're going up and down the halls. Why, why, why? They brought that little boy in that had fallen 21 stairs with a head trauma. And they're all sitting on the floor outside there. And I never saw such despair and the feeling. What kind of God is this that allowed our baby to fall 21 stairs? And then you go into Tiffy's room where Grandma and Grandpa are Christians, and you feel the peace of God. There's no blaming of God. There's a wonderful peace and a quiet. Because, you see, there are only two alternatives. You either blame God, you get mad at God, and you keep asking why. Or you say, Lord, I know that whatever you do, you have the grace, you have the strength, you have the power, you have everything that we need to sustain us. And that sustaining power is there. And we saw in every room where there was a true believer who's resting in the word of the Lord. Peace like a river. Incredible, incredible peace. You see, you have that choice. You have to make that choice. You have to make it quickly. Otherwise, you spin out into a dark bottomless pit of bitterness and unbelief and anger at a loving Heavenly Father. You see, God allows people when they're going through troubles to grieve. He allows the people to cry and to hurt. That's all a part of the process of healing. But he says, you're invited boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find grace to help in the time of need. Now, let me ask you, how does God dispense His grace? How does He give it out? You see, I don't want to know this just theologically. I don't want to just read that and say, hey, the Bible says, come boldly to the throne of grace and receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. How do I get that grace into my body? How do I get it into my heart when I'm hurting? How do I get that grace? What kind of reaction am I expecting? What is the grace of God when it's dispensed to me? And how do I get it? I know it says His grace is sufficient to every need. I want to talk to you about what the Lord has shown me in this process. There are two ways that I have personally experienced the dispensing of a grace into my heart and hopefully through Dad into the whole family. And I hope this brings peace and comfort to your heart. First of all, he dispenses spiritual revelation in times of testing and calamity that you could never known in good times. He dispenses spiritual revelation that you could never understand, though be given to you in good times. You search the scriptures and you'll find that's the principle all through the word of God. The greatest revelations of the word of God came to men when they're in times of testing, trouble and calamity. Take the three years that John, the beloved, laid in the bosom of Jesus. Three years, so close. These were good times of peace and joy and understanding and rest. But only a small measure of revelation came to John. And all those three years meaning comfortably where there was no trouble, there was no testing, there were no trials. It was not till he was driven in chains out of Ephesus and he is dragged to a barren island in Patmos and put in hard labor at prison. It was there with no family, no friends and isolated in hard labor that he got the revelation we call the book of Revelation. The revelation of Jesus Christ didn't come leaning on the bosom of Jesus. It came to him when he was in his lowest, darkest hour. In that darkness, the light of Jesus and the light of the Holy Ghost came to that man. He saw Jesus. He'd never seen him before. Let me tell you how he saw Jesus. And this is the revelation that has to come to every hurting person. This is the revelation I want my family to see. It's the revelation I want Roger and Debbie to see. And I want all my children who are in pain to see. Debbie and Roger will be hearing this in a day or two because we'll send this message to them and it's a message I want them to hear. Because you see, when Jesus appeared to John in the isle of Patmos, he had known him as a son of man, but now he sees him as a son of God. He appears to his God and he says, John, don't be afraid because John is on his face now. And he lifts him up and he shows him in his hands a set of keys. And he says to John, he said, be not afraid. I'm he that liveth. I was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and death. I have them. And I want you to know, I want the devil to know, and I want Debbie and Roger, I want everybody to know that the devil can't kill me. He can't kill my wife. He can't kill any of my children until God says time and place. He holds the keys to life and death. Job said the Lord gives and the Lord taketh away. And if God turns the key, he has a reason. No one dies who knows Jesus one minute before time or one minute after time. God has a timetable and only Jesus has the power. Hallelujah. And this is the revelation that God begins to show first. This is what brings such peace to my heart. And it should bring that whoever hears this tape anywhere, suffering, calamity, anything that's happened in your family. I want you to know you've got to see Jesus, son of God, standing before you, holding the keys in his hands and said, don't be afraid. This is peace. Glory to God. Well, that sets my heart at peace because I know that that he controls it all. Everything's under control because he has the keys in his hands. Hallelujah. A troubled minister wrote to me this past week. I said, Pastor Dave, 15 years ago, my wife had breast cancer. Recently, she's been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They tell me she may have to be placed in a hospice. For 40 years, we've been involved in God's work. And the question that haunts me was all of this labor in vain. Does it not count for anything? Those 40 years, doesn't God give you a break? In other words, for 40 years, don't you get some kind of a break? And what I'd really like to answer that man is that in his darkest hour here and his hurt, his pain. In fact, he told me, he said in closing, he said, I'm almost tempted at times to turn to the prosperity faith gospel. They don't seem to have the problems. But he said, I know that's not my answer. And my answer to that man is that in that hurt and in the grief, God can bring to him the greatest revelation he's ever known of Christ. And he if he if he would just sit still in the presence of God and turn to him and not to his fears and wait upon the Lord, he will see and understand things he's never saw. I have to tell you, folks, I honestly don't remember any revelation I've gotten in my good times. If I've had any revelation at all, it has always come through suffering. It's come through pain. And the tears and what I've written has been tear stained. The lessons that we learned, the revelation of Jesus, I've learned more about Jesus and his grace and his love and his care, his majesty, his power. And testing times than I've ever learned before. You see, the Bible says when Israel was was was prosperous and everything was good, they waxed fat and they forgot the Lord. Wonderful weaning power there is in suffering, it weans you from the world and you begin to see that none of these things matter, that that that everything around you is just a mirage. And the only reality is Christ. The only reality is eternity. You see that. And it brings a peace to your heart. What about Jacob in the 32nd chapter of Genesis? You find Jacob caught between two forces. He is just labored for 20 years to lay for Laban, his uncle. And he's been cheated 10 times. And he says it's enough. And he runs with his family and they take off without telling Laban. And Laban comes from the east after him with a small army. And thereafter, Rachel, remember, had taken their little idols. Now, it's not because she's an idol worshiper. Those little idols represented who got the inheritance. Usually went to the eldest. And she was after after that. She didn't want to lose her inheritance. And Jacob has just God had to warn Laban. Laban was going to kill him. Laban was after him. And God had to speak to him in a dream not to touch him. But he had just established an altar there, a covenant so that Laban would not come across that line toward him again. And here from the West comes Esau with 400 men ready to kill him. And he's caught in the middle. And it's his darkest hour in his life. He's about he thinks to lose everything. And he has an encounter with the Lord. This wrestling match that we know so much about. But out of that, the Bible says, and Jacob called the name of the place Peniel. For I have seen God face to face and my life has been preserved. The greatest revelation in his life came in his darkest hour. You find that all through the Bible. You find it of Job. Here it is late at lowest point. He's endured pain and slander, rejection of his best friends. He's lost everything. It's his darkest hour. And suddenly God appears to him in a whirlwind, takes him into the cosmos, takes him into the depths of the sea, talks to him about creation, shows him things that no man has ever seen about God and his majesty. He sees things that no man ever had seen on earth before. He comes out of it saying, I know now God can do anything. I'll not question your judgment, O God. I've heard thee by the hearing of the ear. But now my eyes see you. Now my eyes see you. You can hear preaching. You can hear tapes. You can hear everything about how you're just how you're to endure trial and temptation. And you can say, I'm I'm well prepared. I've heard so many sermons on it. But folks, when it comes, it's different. Oh, I've preached thousands of sermons about how to handle hard times. But you see, when you go into it, something wonderful happens when you simply trust. No questions. You see, I just written that article. You don't need to understand your hard times. You've got grace. You don't have to ask why. Now, that was easy to preach here. It was one of the easiest. I went home and said, I know it's so easy to preach. But then suddenly the gospel you preach, you want to know that it works. I would tell you, I'd look in the eye for the greatest piece of God I've known and tell you it works. It works. We're not preaching something out of a book. Preaching something revealed from the throne room of God that keeps you in hard times. Folks, no matter what's ahead, no matter what you're going to face in your family, job, house, career, apartment. Folks, God has everything under control. He loves us. There is nothing to fear. Absolutely nothing to fear. And in those times, I told Pastor Carter, years ago, I was one of those evangelists traveling around the country preaching to thousands. And the Lord told me to take time off. I was too busy, too busy to pray and seek God. So we went out, bought a farm, and we bought five trailers and lived in these trailers. That's all. We had no homes and just five trailers. Our staff was in trailers. And it was the best year in our life, living in trailers. It's amazing how God can simplify our lives and make us happier than we've ever been before. I'm saying that just to comfort those who are afraid of the future. Number two. Oh, by the way, there may be some of you here tonight say, well, Brother Lucasen, I'd rather bypass the revelation. I want God to fix everything. I don't want to go through this. You take the revelation. But let me tell you, the revelation doesn't come for your sake alone. It comes that you may be a grace giver, that out of the comfort you received, what you have learned, you can be the salvation of people that would have given up on Christ and have been accusing God until their dying day. And you can come and they'll say, well, how do you know? Secondly, I won't preach much longer. He dispenses his grace through people. And here I come to the theme of my message. He dispenses his grace through his body here on earth. And I'm calling it people grace. Not that any of us possess the grace, but we are channels and dispensers of that grace. Ephesians 4, 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. In other words, if you've been seeking God, if you're a praying man or woman, you have a reservoir of grace. You have grace stored up in you to give to others. That's what it is. It's a gift. It's impossible for a praying man or woman to stay angry at God. It's impossible for a praying man or woman to continue in grief all of their life. It's impossible because of the comfort and consolation of his grace. That when you are a seeker after God, this is very clear. Every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Paul said, I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me. Now listen, this grace was given to me that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And then he tells the Philippians, he said, all of you are partakers of my grace. He said, you're partakers of my grace. And he's saying a very profound thing. What Paul is saying, I go to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, that I may be a merciful preacher to you in your trials. And I've gone to a stone to find grace on your behalf, that I may be a dispenser of that love and help you in the time of need. Now read that verse again, come to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace. It doesn't say for you. Now, of course it means for you. I've gone to him, I've received grace, I go to him. But it's not just that I go to him to receive grace for myself. He said that you may find grace to help in the time of need. Whose time of need? Not only yours, but every brother and sister in Christ. That I receive grace for others, I become a dispenser of grace. Now, of course, God at times has used angels, but God almost always uses people. We are grace givers. We're supposed to be grace givers. Paul said, you're all partakers of something God has done in me. God, I went to his throne, I received my mercy, and I received a merciful, or I asked God to make me a merciful preacher. So that I wouldn't come judgmental on you, and I would not put you under bondage and under the law. That's why Paul was a grace preacher. That's why he was so merciful. That's why he wept with those who grieved, and that's why this man had such compassion. Because God, he had obtained mercy. He had obtained it through prayer, and God had made him a merciful person to others. And then he said, I went to find grace for you. I went to the throne of grace for you. Come boldly to his throne of grace to find grace to help in the time of need. 1 Peter 4, 9, and 10. Use hospitality one to another, as every man has received the gift. Even so, minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. As just dispensers of the grace of God. I have to ask myself when I read that, have I been a good steward of the grace of God? Have I spent all my time praying for my own grace, for my own grief, for my own pain? And I came up short. I wonder how many in this congregation, this dominion, have come up short. So concerned about your own hurt, and your own need, and your own problems, your own financial problems, and your own marriage, or whatever it may be, that you have not been able to reach out and seek grace for others. Last week, while I was in the hospital, I saw this people grace in action. The Bible said God gives grace to the humble. You see, Roger and Debbie had joined a wonderful church, the Church of God in Charlottesville, Virginia. A wonderful godly pastor and his wife. And we sat back and watched grace coming from all directions. We saw people bringing food to their house, and we saw... Tiffy didn't want flowers, I said she liked little stuffed animals, and a room full of stuffed animals coming from every direction, and the saints of God saying, we don't want to bother, we just want to pray, and just coming outside the room and praying, and seeing a support group of people around, and just grace coming from all sides. I experienced grace when I came home, and Pastor Carter had left a message on the answering machine. Brother Dave, we love you, and this church is fasting and praying for Tiffany, and for you, and Gwen. It was grace. It was dispensed grace. The day before yesterday, walking the street, feeling such grief and pain, and Pastor Neil passes, and he says, Brother Dave, you are so loved. So was Gwen. This church prays for you. My spirit was lifted because there was grace coming from people. It was grace. I saw it, and especially at the hospital, Debbie and Roger and I were in a side room, a waiting room, talking about Tiffy, and what the doctor had said, and a woman walked in, and she heard some of our conversation. Then she looked so sad, and I said, why are you here? And she said, I have a 15-year-old son here. His liver, a few weeks ago, stopped functioning, and if he doesn't get a liver transplant, he won't live long. Just a few weeks. And I said, could we pray for you? And Debbie was sitting over here, and this woman was sitting over here, and I was over here, and I started to pray. And halfway through my prayer, I stopped because I heard a commotion. I quit praying, and I opened my eyes, and Debbie had moved over to her chair. It was a double chair. And they were embraced, weeping, patting each other on the back, praying for one another. And Debbie was praying for this woman out of her hurt. You see, it was grace. That's grace. That's people grace. That's not Debbie saying, well, I'm hurting. I have nothing to give to you. It's Debbie learning something that she could have never learned in any other way. Yes, I'm hurting, but she's hurting. Her child is at the point of death outside of a miracle. And out of their hurt, they ministered to one another. It was grace, people grace. Do you understand what I'm saying? Let me close with this. Let me tell you what this is doing in my heart. It's put in me a desperate cry that God give me a gift of mercy and grace for others who are hurting. Because I would really want to be a grace giver. Because I was reading through the book of Job this week, and I became deeply troubled by what his so-called friends did to him. And reading it, I wrote all over. You can see it right here. It's cruel. How cruel? Awful. I got almost angry. Because you know what these men were saying to Job? I'll read what they were saying. God had told him in Job 16, 17, not for any injustice of your hand, your prayer is pure. But then, here's what they said to Job. Job, if you were pure and upright, surely by now, God would await for you and make your habitation prosperous. Chapter 8, verse 6. They said, you forgot God. You're a hypocrite. Verse 11, 2 and 3. You're full of talk, Job. You're full of lies. Another. You're getting even less than your sin deserves, Job. How cruel. When I, last month, my newsletter was that one I just told you about. You don't have to understand your difficulties, your troubles. You have grace. I got some letters back that really hurt. Please remove me from your mailing list, Mr. Wilkerson. You don't understand your afflictions because you have no faith. We want nothing to do with your kind of gospel. You should have had power over the devil and those afflictions. And these letters, they identified themselves as being with the prosperity faith gospel and named their ministers. And these letters said, if you had any faith at all, you would understand. You don't understand because you don't have faith and that's why you're suffering. And one woman said, I'll have nothing to do with your kind of suffering. Now, folks, I'm not angry at those people because I know they're deluded and I know the time's going to come. They're all going to face a problem. They're going to face a calamity and they're going to take the course that Job's wife took, curse God and die because they have no inner resources. And it's going to be a dangerous time. And so I'm not angry at that. But what it did for me, I said, oh God, anything that I say that is not of grace, if it's not Christlike, if it's not merciful, it's not of God. It has... when people suffering and if you... Folks, the worst thing, the worst curse that can come upon a Christian is to revel and be pleased when your enemy is suffering. When somebody's done you wrong and they suffer and there's some satisfaction you get in it. What a terrible thing. Or to accuse people you don't have faith. When Debbie had her first cancer, she went to one of those kind of churches. They asked her to leave. Said, we don't want you here in this church. Those were the very words because you're not a testimony to the power of God because of her cancer. And what that does in me and what it is is, oh God, make me merciful. God, give me a merciful heart. Help me to be a grace giver. Help me be... Let me experience this people grace. Folks, if you want to really understand, with this I close, the fullness of God's grace. Because Job held his confidence in God and because he still believed in all of his hard times, God gave... He was a grace giver to his own wife. God in His mercy forgave her. If you had been there when you saw that woman, if you stood by Job when that woman cursed him or said, curse God and die, and looked at him and you saw her eyes, there was no life in her eyes, and you would say, never again will there be laughter in her life. Never again will she smile. Never again will there be joy in her life. She's dead. She's going to just float. She's just going to die and fade away. That was what you would have thought. But folks, the mercy of God. God restored everything to Job and his wife. It wasn't too much longer when laughter and joy came to the house. A little girl was born to that same woman and they named her Jemima. And you know what that means? Soft, loving little dove. You talk about the grace of God. Here's a woman who said, curse God and die. And God gives her a loving little dove. She bore two other daughters and seven more sons. Job lived 140 more years. Oh, she smiled. She laughed again. There was joy in that household. All the memories were still there. She never forgot the past. But all the joy that there was and the mercy. He lived 140 years. And the Bible says he saw his sons, his sons' sons, even to four generations. Four generations. Weeping endures for a night. Joy comes in the morning. Hallelujah. Don't you love him? Let's stand. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Heavenly Father, my family is not the only one hurting here tonight. You're not interested in just my family. You're interested in everyone in this place and everyone hearing this message. Your heart of love goes out. You're saying, I understand. Just trust me. I'm going to see you through and I'll not fail you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord, I pray, first of all, for every hurting person in this congregation. Somebody here, Lord, that doesn't understand what they're going through and they've been asking, why God, why? Lord, I'm asking you to take that why out of their heart and replace it with a praise, with a thank you, Jesus, for your grace. And Lord, I pray you raise up grace givers all around them with people grace. The grace of God shown through loving saints. Lord, show us ways that we can talk to people. Show us ways that we can show that grace. Lord, open doors. Help us when we find out somebody's in the hospital or somebody's going through to contact them. Lord, just a note, a card, a letter, a call, just a handshake, a hug. Lord, that woman in that room, whose son needed a liver. She didn't need a sermon. She didn't even need my prayer. She needed a hug. She needed to be hugged. God put a hug in our hearts. I thank you for the hugs that we have felt from your body. Lord, people who say, I am fasting and praying, and they really do. It's not just talk. That spiritual hug is life-giving. Lord Jesus, there are so many that are hurting here tonight, and especially during Christmas season. Lord Pastor Carter told me that they've been praying against that spirit, and you've given us a breakthrough on it. And we pray, Lord, that in this service tonight, before we leave this place, if it takes just five minutes, oh God, lift the burden, lift the pain and the grief and the sorrow, and bring joy to the hearts. Hallelujah. Lord, joy returns. There will come joy. Joy. In Jesus' name I pray. Now, if you're here tonight, and you're hurting, I don't even know how to give this kind of altar call, but while I was preaching tonight, you're saying, Brother Wolfson, in some way you explained me. I'm hurting, and I've been asking God why. And I'll tell you, if you have any anger toward the Lord at all, you don't want to admit it, but there's something inside. God, why? You're just peeved. You're saying, God, I don't understand this. You don't want to get mad at God, but that's really what happens if you don't deal with it. Why don't you come and let me pray for you tonight. Let's ask God to heal you. If you don't know Jesus, if you're not saved, if you're backslidden, come for healing tonight. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs, and even in the annex. Go to the lobby, and they'll tell you how to get down. Just come and see me here, and I'll pray for you right here. All of this audience. The healer is here tonight. Jesus the healer is here. The sustainer. And He wants you to face this Christmas season with peace in your heart. No turmoil, no strife. And especially if you're asking God why. Come and settle that question here tonight as they sing. We'll wait for you. Up in the balcony, come to the stairs on the other side, down in the aisle. And in the annex, come and meet me here. We'll wait for you. Look this way. I want you to feel in your heart. I want you to experience in your heart all that came forward. The tremendous love Jesus has for you. You've got to be persuaded He loves you. That He's not mad at you. And no matter what you have said in the past, if you stand here now, and say, Lord, you know I said it out of hurt, I said it out of pain, I got mad at you. Or I said things I shouldn't have said, and I thought things that I shouldn't have thought. Oh, God's big enough, merciful enough to forgive you right now. And put faith in your heart. And give you peace and rest as you walk out of this place right now. But first of all, you've got to confess to Him right now your unbelief and your doubt. Folks, I want to tell you something. It's easy to... Unbelief comes naturally. Faith doesn't come naturally. Unbelief and doubt just... That's your first reaction. You lose a job, or somebody turns against you. You know, here's a man that was so downcast his girlfriend left and took up with another young man the day before yesterday near 14th Street and shot his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend out of anger. That's where anger ends. It goes to despair. Lay down anger, lay down despair tonight and say, Jesus, I believe Your Word and I'm going to trust You. That's all that He asks. That you lean on Him and trust Him. And when you're hurting, and when you're in pain or in grief, you run to Him, just run to Him and say, Father, loving Father, call Him what He is. He's a loving Father. He's a caring Father. And I know You care for me. I know You love me, but I'm hurting and I need help. And He said He would be there. He'll send the Holy Ghost to comfort you and strengthen you. Now, let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, I come against every lying spirit, every evil spirit that comes from the pits of hell to delude and to deceive and to bring despair and hurt and pain upon God's people. And even those that have come that are returning to You, Lord Jesus, that have been running from You, how the enemies tried to destroy them. Lord Jesus, I believe right now that You're bringing peace. Lord, we command every evil spirit and every lying spirit to depart in Jesus' name. We take Your authority, Father, over all of those fears, over all of these abject spirits, this feeling of despair and despondency. And, oh, God, depression. That You drive it out in Jesus' name. Drive it out of the hearts. Lord, we receive Your love. I want us to sing that, Lord, I receive Your love. And I'd like this congregation to have just a little love feast before we close here, that we receive the love. How many times you've said, I love You, Jesus, but how many times have you said, Lord, I receive Your love? This is the conclusion of the message.