1. 1st Corinthians 15:9-11 AMPLIFIED VERSION
The apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Corinth:
15:9 “For I am the least worthy of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God, oppressing it with cruelty and with violence.
15:10 But by the Grace (the unmerited favor) of God I am what I am, and His Grace toward me was not found to be for nothing. In fact, I worked harder than all of them, though it was not really I, but the Grace of God which was with me.
15:11 So, whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach and this is what you believe.”
You can call this a sermon or a testimony tonight, it really makes no difference to me, but I’d simply like to speak to you for just a little while on this thought, “I Am What I Am ONLY By The Grace Of God.”
2. Grace simply means the unmerited or undeserved favor of God.
Webster’s Dictionary defines Grace as “Unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification”. It also says that it is, “A virtue coming from God”.
You can’t work hard enough and earn grace.
You can’t be good enough for grace.
Grace is freely given to us by God.
Romans 3:23 - 24 from the Amplified Bible says, “All have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives. All are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is provided in Christ Jesus.”
Thank God for His gift of Grace.
Where would I be tonight, but for the Grace of God.
3. Some time ago, I was at a church for the weekend services and I staying in the evangelistic quarters.
It was late on a Saturday night and I was seeking God’s direction for the following days services.
While I was in there meditating, I began looking back at my own life and where I was in my walk with the Lord at that time.
I thought to myself, “Here I am preaching, singing and sharing the good news of God’s mercy in my life and I was pretty amazed at how far I’d come over the past few years.
To think, I’m actually preaching. Me???!!!
That’s nearly unbelievable.
Nobody could be more unworthy than myself.
I’ve come quite a long way from where I used to be and life is going pretty well over all.
I’m selling CDs and tapes.
My schedule is staying full.
I’ve really done quite well for myself.”
If you’ll notice in my thoughts, I was giving myself a whole lot of credit for where I’d come from.
“Lord, Help us to realize that we are nothing within ourselves and that ALL GOOD things come from you alone!
But as I pondered these sorts of thoughts and I felt a hint of pride welling up within myself, this question began piercing it’s way into my consciousness, “What has Grace done in your life?”
As I began to focus on this question, I began to see what God was wanting me to see.
I began to realize that there’s a lot more to it than, “I’ve done pretty good for myself”.
I began to realize that because of things that I had done for myself years earlier, that God’s Grace had to reach that much farther for me.
I realized that Grace is the reason that I’m alive!
Grace is the reason my mind is working and my heart is beating.
Grace is the reason that I’m able to sing and preach.
It didn’t take me very long to see the handprint of God’s Grace all over the days and years of my life.
I cried and said, “Lord, I know what I am.
Forgive me for boasting within myself.
You have delivered me from drugs, alcohol, death and hell and I Am What I Am today ONLY by your Grace and nothing more!”
My friend, we’d better know that it’s only by His Grace that we’re able to be here right now.
If things are going well in your life, you’d better remember that God gets the glory.
4. Whenever I was in drug rehab, I was there with 14 other addicts.
They were 14 other nice folks, who simply had a real serious problem, just as I did.
This isn’t a brag or a boast in anyway upon myself, but I can say that by the Grace of God I was able to establish a relationship with Him and it’s only through that relationship based on His Grace that I’ve remained clean and sober for 4 ½ years.
It saddens me greatly to say that all 14 of my peers in rehab have slipped back into the world of addiction that they fought so hard to escape and believe me they fought hard.
Many of them have since gone back into treatment and they’re trying it again, but let me boldly proclaim to you tonight that God is the ONLY one who is able to ultimately keep you.
There is a need and a place for programs.
If I told you that the programs did not help me, then I would be lying to you, because they did.
But Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous could not keep me clean and sober alone!
Without the Grace (the unmerited favor) of God, those programs would have been in vain.
Their programs DID help me, but God’s Grace is what made the difference.
Without His Grace, I would have never found help.
Without His Grace, I would have died an addict.
Without His Grace, I would not be standing before you tonight clean, sober, justified and delivered!
But tonight, I want you to know that I am Clean, Sober, Justified and Delivered and I Am What I Am ONLY By The Grace Of God!
5. There was one young man whom I met while in treatment, who has forever changed my life.
His name was Johnny.
Johnny and I clicked and soon became best friends.
We shared the same apartment in rehab and we both had the same clean date of February 1st, 2001.
We spent many, many hours in deep conversation, sharing the deep and hidden places of our hearts with one another.
During our stay together, we created a deep bond, which somehow I still feel even now.
We were roommates for 56 days, and then I left the treatment facility, surrendered my life to God and my life has progressed to the point where I stand now.
Johnny stayed in treatment for 6 months and we has vowed to one another that we would never go back to drugs, no matter what.
We would do everything that we had to in order to remain clean.
It’s been nearly 3 years now.
I’d been out singing in Louisiana over the weekend and I came in late on a Sunday night.
When I got in I found a message waiting for me.
It was from a lady, whom I and Johnny had been in rehab with.
She said that it was urgent and to call no matter what time it was.
I called and she gave me the devastating news.
She told me that Johnny, now 36, had died.
I broke down and began to cry, “No, not Johnny!”
“How? What Happened?”
She said that he’d taken a lethal dose of painkillers and alcohol and that he’d been removed from life support that evening.
I was so broken and crushed and I sat down and wrote a song, which I sang at his funeral a couple of days later.
It’s simply called, “Johnny’s Song”.
I loved Johnny.
I don’t understand all of the “whys” of life.
I don’t understand why some never see the countless opportunities that I’ve seen.
I’ll never know why Johnny went back to the drugs again.
I’ll never know why I was revived after a major overdose which sent me into Cardiac Arrythmia.
It was certainly not because of any good thing that I’d done.
All I can say is that it was simply the Grace (that unmerited favor) of God.
You see I had a Mom and a Dad who had continually prayed for God’s Grace and Mercy to overshadow me and I believe with all of my heart that, that’s what made the difference for me.
Don’t you try and tell me that intercession doesn’t work!
Don’t you try and tell me that prayer and fasting doesn’t work!
It’s too late for me to believe that one!
I am a prime example of the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man.
It does avail much!
6. A couple of years ago, I was called by a friend of mine named Alicia, whom I’d been in treatment with.
She called from a crack house on her cell phone.
She was so messed up and scared.
She was crying and she said, “Robbie, I didn’t know who to call, but I thought I could call you.”
She told me that she wanted help and she wanted to know if I’d come get her and bring her to the hospital for treatment.
I did and I then began visiting her there.
Soon she was transferred back out to the treatment facility that we had been in together as addicts a couple of years earlier.
As her mind began to get clearer, we began to talk more.
I’ll never forget something that she said to me during one of our talks.
She said, “Robbie, you must really be strong to be able to remain clean and sober for as long as you have without slipping up.”
Well, that comment caught me off guard, because I know me.
I know that I’ve never been a strong individual when it came to the temptation of alcohol and drugs.
I remember that I looked back at her and I said, “Alicia, it’s not that I’m strong, because I’m not.”
“It’s not me doing the work here, it’s God!”
“He’s the one with the strength and it’s ONLY by His Grace working in my life that I’m able to remain clean and sober.”
You see friend tonight, had you known me before, then you too would understand.
If you could have known me just a few short years ago, then you’d understand that it’s not always been this way with me.
I’ve not always been the man that you today.
If you could have seen my parents, when they were told that their baby boy had tuberculosis.
Or maybe if you could have been there when this same little boy was run over by a car while riding his bicycle at the age of 7.
If you could have only seen the same young man as he was bound to a bed on his back for months on end in a full body cast.
If you could have been there in the wee hours of the morning, when the medications would no longer help and the only thing that brought relief were the prayers of his mother.
If you could have been there when that same young man was told that he would possibly lose his leg, because the doctors were just running out of options.
If you could have been there when as a teenager, he sat on a church pew, felt a call of God on his life, then watched as he allowed bitterness and resentment to drag him to the deepest depths of sin.
Thank God you weren’t riding with him in his pickup truck after a night of partying, as it crashed into the side of a bridge at over 90 mph.
If you could have possibly stopped by the intensive care unit on numerous occassions, then you could have witnessed as this young man barely hung on to a thread of life.
If you could have simply known this guy, when for 17 years of his life, he was in bondage to alcoholism and drug addiction, then you could have witnessed as it took nearly everything from him and nearly even the last breath from his body.
Had you been there, then perhaps you would have been able to understand the hopelessness and the desperation that was in this young man’s life.
If you could have only been there when his heart stopped beating after a major overdose of Meth Amphetamine, Sleeping Pills and Ecstacy.
My friend if you could have only witnessed some of these things, then you too, would know that it’s ONLY By The Grace Of God, that I Am What I Am Today!
When people attempt to give me credit for being such a strong and smart individual, all of these things and so many more begin to turn through the pages of my memory and I’m again, humbled by the Grace of God.
I always tell them, it’s not me working here, but it’s all God.
His Grace has brought me here.
His Grace has brought me an awfully long way from where I was not so very long ago.
7. Let me talk just for a few minutes about the key which God so graciously used in my life to bring me out of my addiction.
You see I thought that drugs and alcohol were my real problem, but they were only the symptom of the real issue.
I’d had an accident as a teenager, which had changed my life and taken away all of my social activity during my early and mid-teen age years.
During this time I’d lost my grandfather, whom I loved very much, to cancer.
I’d spent several years on crutches, in hospitals and in full body casts.
I’d had numerous surgeries also during this time.
Folks, we all go through things in life that don’t seem fair.
We don’t understand why.
But it’s not what we go through that necessarily makes the difference.
It’s how we respond to it.
I’ve heard and I’m sure that you’ve all heard the phrase, “I’ll get bitter or I’ll get better.”
Well, I became bitter, not better.
I was so angry at life, people, myself and at God.
Bitterness is the root of nearly every problem that I faced in my adult life.
When I was in treatment, my therapist told me that forgiveness was the key to me breaking free.
I didn’t understand that, but I began praying that God would open my understanding to the power of total forgiveness and He did.
When I sincerely began to totally forgive and I do mean totally release of the resentments and bitterness, that’s when I began to find freedom myself.
Through the power of the act of forgiveness, I was able to set myself free.
It was only by God’s Grace that I was ever able to forgive or to even understand the value of it.
Whenever we forgive, we step out into a supernatural realm, because it’s then that we become just a little bit more like Jesus.
Forgiveness for me, was the key ingredient to deliverance.
8. You see, I understand what it’s like to be hooked on prescription pain killers and muscle relaxers.
I know what it’s like to wake up drunk in a ditch, laying in your own vomit and not remember how you got there.
I know what it’s like to pass out in the middle of the night in a graveyard, because you’re so miserable that a grave looks better than what life you have.
I know what it’s like to be hooked on Cocaine and Meth and not be able to get your nose to stop bleeding, because all of the nasal membranes have ruptured, because of abuse.
I know what it’s like to spend 2 weeks in full kidney failure and to lose the function of one kidney for life, because of drug abuse.
I know what it’s like to be sued for about a million dollars and to lose your home, vehicles and business, because of your lifestyle and still not finding it within yourself to surrender to God’s will.
I know the fear of having a major overdose and to feel your heart take it’s final beat and to feel everything shutting down in your body.
And thank GOD, I also know what if feels like to work through a process of deliverance, which didn’t come instantly, but was worth every heartache in the end Only Because of The Grace Of God!
9. The Old Testament Law says that I shouldn’t be here.
It says that I shouldn’t be living and especially not the good life I’m living today.
It says that I should be filling a cemetary plot.
It says that my mind shouldn’t be healed.
But GRACE says that those things are no longer held charge to me.
My record has been cleared.
My slate has been made clean.
My name has been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
His blood has cleansed me and made a new creature or me.
The Apostle Paul said, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, Behold all things are become new.”
God’s Grace has made me Brand New and has forever changed my destiny!
10. God has been so very good to me.
He’s given me the most beautiful and wonderful wife.
He’s given me a family, a home, a life and a ministry.
If you want to see a picture of Grace, just look at me.
My friend, if you’re ever able to be successful at anything...
If you’re a success as a husband, as a wife, as a father, as a mother, a student, an employee or employer or whatever your role in life may be, just remember that it’s not because of your good looks or your intellect, but it’s simply by the Grace of God.
You may say, “But how can a man come from complete Crystal Meth addiction, with no hope, no happiness, no future and nothing left to offer...
To living a drug free productive family life...
To preaching and singing...
To sharing his testimony in the public school system...
To recording gospel music...
How can a man come that far in such a short period of time?”
I’ll tell you how, because my Bible still tells me that with Jesus all things are possible!
Your situation is not impossible for God friend.
How many across this congregation tonight have a problem that you can’t solve in life? You say, “Oh, but Brother Robbie, you just don’t understand how bid my situation is...” No, I probably don’t, but you need to take your eyes off of the problem and place them on Jesus. HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOUR NEEDS!
How many have unsaved loved ones? You may say, “Oh, But Brother Robbie, you just don’t understand how far out they are. You don’t understand how involved in sin they are. You don’t know how messed up their lives are...” No I probably don’t, but my Bible still tells me, That where sin ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND!
