We're delighted that you're here
today. Let me tell you, you're in a
good place. And I'll tell you what makes
it good is you are in a place where God inhabits. There is
no doubt in my mind. I haven't been able to say that
for 50 years, but I am absolutely positive that God is all over
what's happening. If you're in big, big trouble,
we're glad that you're here because we have a miracle working God
that can do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Well,
our roofer guy's up there. We didn't say anything about
the roof, but thank you so much. And I appreciate him more every
day. I watch him up there. so thankful he hasn't asked me
to come up and bless the roof. Danny's here today. Danny Davis. Thank you so much for Yesterday I was watching that
copper go up just absolutely, it was like the Shekinah glory
that was resting on this place. God is good to us and I'm going
to tell you some great things today that have been happening,
how God is moving in and taking us nobodies and literally using
us in such a magnificent way. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder. I hope you will. I hope God takes
the scales off your eyes today and you can see, truly see, amazing
grace. Now I'm going to approach it
a little different. Miss Pam said to me she heard
a message by T.D. Jakes. entitled Favor is Not
Fair. And I thought to myself, I'm
going to give that a shot myself next Sunday. That's where I stole
the subject today. I want to talk to you about favor
is not fair. You really need to learn this.
And really, and not until you do can you really enter into
high worship. Until you can say with David
and with Ruth, who am I? I mean that you are truly overcome
with just how God blesses you. Until you can do what the scripture
says, in everything give thanks. And then you truly enter into
this truth that God is working everything out for your good
and for His glory. Really, the statement, that's
not fair, is an evil little statement. It's not fair. My grandkids say
that. about what we do for one of them. That's not fair. Where's mine? Well, the truth is, you didn't
deserve anything to begin with. This statement, it's not fair,
is usually made by people who feel very worthy. Show me one who has worked very
hard all their life, And lo and behold, Joe Doe, who lives in
the hood, lives off welfare, buys a lottery ticket, and wins
$540 million. And you hardworking folk go like
this, that's not fair. Or, I thought about it, your
mother has been a godly woman, faithful to your dad, loved her
children. She gets cancer and dies. Lucy
May, who is a harlot down in the hood, using crack, sells
her children to men, lives in a vacant house with a pack of
dogs, gets taken to the welfare hospital after she has cancer
and is cured. That's not fair. Why are you
getting quiet on me? Don't get quiet on me. You know,
I'm going somewhere with this. That's not fair, shouldn't be
in your vocabulary as a child of God. That's not fair. Unless I forget this, we're not
talking about fair today. We're talking about amazing grace. It's amazing. Is it amazing to
you? Here you sit. A year ago, you
were in the crack house, you were using drugs. Here you sit,
you were selling your body. You've had four abortions. And
here you sit in the house of God, washed in the blood of Jesus
Christ, heaven bound. That's amazing grace. Or, Let
me take the opposite end of that. Here you sit. A couple years
ago you were in church as churchy as all get out. Thought yourself
better than everybody else because you were a Presbyterian. And now you found out that it
wasn't being a Presbyterian at all. that God found you. Listen, let me tell you, if you
get found in the church house, you are really a miracle. And I've said this to you so
many times, the devil doesn't care whether you go to hell singing
99 bottles of beer on the wall from the bar stool or in the
choir loft singing, Oh, how I love Jesus. Many people in church
this morning need to be saved. They think they're better than
other folks. Doesn't work that way. It's not fair. You know,
I've been in church now 71 years. That's true. I've been in church.
I think I was almost born in church. Church, church, church. There's nothing I have not seen
out of supposedly church people. Jealousy, envy, strife. all over God blessing someone
else. I remember Pam's mother passed away and her dad, she's
always wanted a Cadillac, so her dad bought her a Cadillac
with her mother's inheritance money and gave it to her. It
wasn't a new one, it was a used one. Who did people talk about? The lady at the rescue mission,
pastor's wife driving a Cadillac. Somebody said, praise God. Somebody
always said, praise God. My house. I've heard people say,
you know, he lives in that big house. That you built, the church actually
built the house I live in. I've heard people talk about
the way my kids dress. I mean, you know, that attitude
of, It's not fair. And somehow, many,
many times the pastors looked at like this, Lord, you keep
him humble, we'll keep him poor. My dad wouldn't drive a Cadillac
because of what people would say. That's really a shame. That's
really a shame. When I turn 80, I'm buying me
the biggest Corvette they make. And I'm going to drive it down
Woodward with the radio blaring the hymn, How Great Thou Art. Favor isn't fair, people say. It's really jealousy. It's envy. And what we, the people of God,
when someone else is blessed, we ought to be blessed ourselves. Boy, I'm so glad he's got that. You know, if there wasn't a lot
of wealthy people around here, we wouldn't have stuff like we
have here. Because God has blessed them.
They blessed us. And God intended to bless them
to bless us. That's the grace of God. The
grace of God. When the Spirit of God teaches
you the truth, and you see it, and you own it, and you acknowledge
it, you'll stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. The last probably 15 days, I
have been so overcome, literally. Like Greg prayed, I've been overcome. I mean, I am breaking down. I cry. And it's not just because
I'm 71. It's because I don't know what
to do with these awesome things. I'm amazed. I'm in a state of
wonder and praise. God showing you favor really
isn't fair. It's grace. Anything short of
hell is grace. That's right. should have been dead a long
time ago sleeping in my grave. It's unmerited favor. You're
here today hearing the gospel one more time. You could have
OD'd a long time ago. But God has brought you here.
And maybe even in your sins, you know, it's not just churchy
Pharisee people that say it's not fair. I've heard drug addicts
say it's not fair. Or how about this? They come
to the mission and there's a little discipline going on. They go
like this, and you guys call yourselves Christian. You know,
that's a good one too. Every child of God must reach
this state to be in this hallelujah place. It's who am I? You drove over here in the car.
Who do you think you are? You live in a house, you ate
breakfast today. Or maybe you're in the center.
Thank God that he provided a center across the street. You've been blessed. You've been
favored. Do you know there are people
out there in those vacant houses right now? You moms, you remember
when you were sleeping in the back seat of a car and had your
kids and there was literally no hope and now here you are.
Hasn't God been good to you? And all of it's God's blessings.
And now, because you're in church and because you're acting half-civil
now, don't take credit for that yourself. You've been clean 30
days? Hallelujah! You haven't relapsed over 15
times in the last two years? Hallelujah! Many years ago, you remember,
some of you probably read the story where C.S. Lewis tells
of the little boy who buys his dad a lollipop with his dad's
quarter. That's you and me. You don't
give God anything, it's all his to begin with, right? From bringing
it to God. Have you lost your mind? You
have nothing except what God gives you. And you're just giving
back to God what He gave you. That's the way you look at things.
God has brought you into the land, has given you great and
godly cities, goodly cities, which you did not build, houses
full of all good things which you did not fill, and wells dig
which you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees which you did
not plant. That's Old Testament, but that's
good theology. And then the big question Ruth
asks is always the question we ought to be asking ourselves.
Why did you take notice of me? You know, the doctrines of grace
are hated by many. Because quite frankly, God has
showed favor. And he calls these people who
are his, his elect. That ain't fair. Jacob have I
loved and Esau have I hated. That ain't fair. You want fair? If you want fair, God will send
us all to hell. That would be fair. And that
would be just. Don't get in a hissy about the
doctrine of election. It's a glorious, awesome, wonderful
Bible truth that God has chosen a number of people under salvation,
which no man can number. Why some of you looking at me
like that? It's true. Isn't that amazing? You unresigned
maggot. God chose you. It's not fair. Well, He didn't choose you on
the basis of your goodness. It's called sovereign grace. It's called unmerited favor. Thank God He doesn't give us
what we deserve. I am. Thank you. Favor's not fair. It's just not fair. And let me
tell you what favor is, so I can make it really plain. It's distinguishing
grace. It's segregating grace. It's peculiar, particular grace. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Isn't that awesome? Not he might, not perhaps, but
he shall. You were saved on purpose for
a purpose. You are precious in his sight.
You are peculiar and particular to him. And then Christ came
into the world. Somebody said, well, you know,
I know what you think, Pastor, that he died for everybody to
give everybody a chance. You don't need a chance. This
is not lotto luck. This is amazing grace. This is
sovereign grace. This is free grace. He bought
you. He paid for you in full. He finished
the work. He paid the price. He bought
you. Oh, I'm getting happy. I'm getting
happy. I'm getting happy. I'm getting
happy. I may turn Pentecostal here any
minute. He bought you. Oh, you were in
debt. Oh, you and I were in such debt. But he paid the debt off. You
owe justice. Justice had to be satisfied.
God is a just and a holy and a righteous God, and every sin
that you've ever thought and ever committed, He had to pay
for in full. Either He pays or you pay. And
you have nothing to pay, you're bankrupt. He paid the price. I want you to see that you are
so precious and that you're special. Well, you are. because you haven't
been redeemed with silver and gold. Oh, you're valuable to
God because the price he paid was the blood of his own son.
Oh, you're expensive. And being that expensive, you
ever had anything really expensive? I tell you, you kind of keep
an eye on it. You have no intentions of losing it. Amen. God's not going to lose
you. He didn't buy you to lose you.
He paid for you. And I love those passages in
Romans 8. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are
the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, them he
also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, hallelujah,
them he also glorified. Who shall be able to separate
us from the love of God? I am persuaded that neither life,
nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate
us from the love of God. Oh, you're favored. You're favored. Don't you know
that every blessing that comes your way was one of his handfuls
on purpose? I was so blessed today. Did you
realize that God gave you that blessing? And sometimes, do you
know a little bit about this? I'm finding out a lot about this.
I stumble right into a blessing. I didn't see it coming. I didn't
know it was coming. Now I want to tell you a couple
stories today about stumbling into blessings, hands full on
purpose, that God left out there in the field for me. I know it's
not going to sound fair, but up there at the new William A.
Davis home, I didn't know how we were ever going to get that
place. I didn't know how we were going to get $5.5 million. I
saw those girls up there Friday moving in. I said, what a blessing. I just broke down and cried.
I wasn't crying because I was sad. I wasn't crying because
I was 71. I was crying because I just picked
up a handful on purpose. You know what I mean? That was
God bless. He had this place. Look at this
place here. 15 years ago, I said, God, please
give me that place. I didn't see it coming. But you
know, and when I said, you know, God, give me that place. I didn't
know he was literally gonna give me that place. I thought we'd
have to raise three or four million. But no, somebody comes along
and pays for it in full. I didn't spend a red dime. It
was just bought and paid for. I got a picture of the deed being
signed over. What a blessing. And then on
top of that, God blessed with another $500,000 just to make
it look nice. Do you know what's happening
around here? I mean, I came out here yesterday and saw
that copper up there and Danny told me he's going to put the
cross right on top of that. When they turned it into a bar,
we made them take it down. Anyone going back up there? I came in Wednesday and Tracy
said to me, you got a call, a long-distance call from a pastor from Cincinnati. I said, really? Who? She said,
Lasserre Bradley Jr. I said, he's dead. She said,
well, he's talking. He was on the phone. He wants you to call him back.
I said, Let's air Bradley jr. Let me tell you the story about
LeSara Bradley jr. When I was 10 years old LeSara
Bradley jr. Appeared in look magazine That
was a big magazine back then with lots of pictures LeSara
Bradley jr. When he appeared in look magazine
was 15 years old He was the boy wonder preacher It so happens
in God's providence that I went to school and attended some of
the church that Lacerre Bradley Jr. was a member of. He was in
Lexington, Kentucky. His father was a federal judge. At any rate, in the providence
of God, Lacerre Bradley Jr. was invited to come to my dad's
church, Grace Baptist Church. I was 10 years old. He was the
most amazing preacher I've ever heard. He was like a Rothbarner
to me. At 10 years old, I sat and listened
to LaSara Bradley Jr. preach the truth of grace. And
10 years old, at Grace Baptist Church, sitting on the left-hand
side, about where Daryl's sitting, I could have stood up and screamed,
hallelujah. as he talked about God's amazing
grace. I was 10 years old. I found out
he was on radio out of Louisville, Kentucky at 1030 every Sunday
night. Every Sunday night. And actually,
after he left Grace Baptist Church, he became a primitive Baptist. So my dad, who was missionary
Baptist, dropped him. And that means didn't support
him anymore and wasn't going to have him back to preach anymore
because he was a different flavor. And so secretly from 10 years
old, I tuned him in every Sunday night at 1030. And I can remember
Lasseur Bradley Jr. preaching the gospel and me 10
years old up there in my bed with my clock radio. listening
to Lasserre and shouting at 10 years old. Praise God! Oh, I kind of set it quiet because
I didn't want dad to hear. 61 years ago. And now let me tell you the rest
of the story. When Lasserre called, I called
him back. I didn't tell him I thought he
was dead. I called him back, he said, it's
so good to hear your voice. He said, I've just finished reading
about you in Whirl Magazine. So I'm thinking last year, right? Remember, we won the Whirl Magazine
award for compassion, and I went to Washington, we got $25,000.
So I said to him, thank you. And I said, are you still at
the same church? He said, yes. But he said, Kent,
We're having real problems here in Cincinnati. This city's being
taken over by drug dealers, and for the first time in all of
my ministry, which has to be 60, 70 years, I'm dealing with
drug addiction, and I really have no idea what to do. I said,
would you like to come up to Grace Gospel Fellowship? And
I said, would you like to preach for us while you're here? Oh,
he said, I'd be so honored. So in September, LeSayer Bradley
Jr. is going to come up and preach
for us on a Sunday morning. Now, a couple of weeks ago, I
got World Magazine. I get it every month in a single
form, but somebody sent me a package with five magazines in there. And I threw them in the backseat
of my car and I said to myself, I don't know why they sent those.
I took them home and I took them in and Miss Pam said, what do
you want to do with these? I mean, she's quick to pick things
up and move them. I'm always laying stuff around.
Anyway, I said, probably just pitch them. I have one upstairs.
And she said, well, maybe I should look through them and just see
if there's anything about grace centers. Look at that. That's me. Now, I want to say this really
quick. It says, man with a mission,
not Superman, but a life changer. Now, let me say real quick, don't
clap yet. I want to say to you, you know
who the life changer is, and it's not Ken Clark. It's the
Lord Jesus. So I want to give him the glory.
But this is the article 400,000 people go find out about what
we believe here at Grace Centers of Hope. God is doing something
and I believe on the world stage. You think about praying before
the House of Representatives. You think about this article
for the second time being in World Magazine. You think about
us winning that Compassion Award. So yesterday I'm looking through
my emails and it pops up one from Marvin Olasky. You know
who Marvin Olasky is? He's the editor of World Magazine. And he says to me, Kent, we are
getting hundreds of response to the article that we put in
the magazine this month. See, I didn't even know the article
was in there. You see, that's what God does when you're not
looking, right? He blesses you. And he said, you know, you're
welcome. I'll send you more copies if
you can use them. I said, yes, send about 200.
We'll pass them out at our golf outing. So all of those heathen
golfers who come who don't know the law will get to find out
about Christ. Isn't God sneaky how he gets
his word out to people? So I said to Marvin, I wrote
him back. I said, would you ever consider
speaking for us one Sunday morning? I mean, I thanked him for putting
the article. He said it would be a high honor for me to come
to Grace Gospel Fellowship. So now we're on first name basis. Let me go back just a little
bit. 28 years ago, I read a book by
Marvin Olasky about the tragedy of American compassion. And I
began to institute over at Pontiac Rescue Mission the things that
Olasky said in that book, like no government funding, no welfare,
it doesn't work, entitlement doesn't work. And 28 years ago,
I meet the man who wrote the book. See, those things are not accidents. Those are God doing things on
purpose. I know it's not fair. Today I
got up very early and I went to the drugstore to buy the Detroit
Free Press because I thought we were going to be the headlines
today. They said we were, but the tragedies that happened in
Dallas is consuming the papers now. By the way, this is not
a white church, and this is not a black church. This is God's
church. But anyway, I know you ought
to watch the Free Press. I wouldn't buy one before you
look at it. But this week sometime, we're going to have about, I
don't know, maybe two or three or four pages, perhaps even the
headlines about the new Women and Children's Shelter, the Willie
Mae Davison. Oh, one other story, and I know
it's a quarter after, but just one other story. Friday, the
Free Press sent a photographer up there. and he's taking pictures. And we at about 11 o'clock, Danny
was there and a few other folks. We made a circle and I'd planned
at 11 o'clock, we'd just had prayer. One of our ladies prayed
and Miss Pam prayed. But it was a moving time as we
made that circle and had prayer. You could sense God was there
in such a powerful way. And the photographer come up
to me and here's what he said, pastor, I'm not a religious man. I'm not a religious man. I don't
go to church. These were his exact words. I
think I just felt the presence of God. And you know, I sensed his spirit.
He was a very kind young man. As we talked along, I said, you
know, do you ever do work on the side besides for the free
press, you know, come out and take pictures? And he said, well,
I've won several awards for films. I said, did you say film? He
said, yeah, and there were big awards, too. There were documentaries. And I said, you know, we've made
a couple films. He said, would you send them
to me? I said, of course. I'd be glad
to. Accident? No. Hands full on purpose. The Lord may save that gentleman.
Amen. All right. I've wandered all
over the place. Grace is not fair. It's unmerited favor. You don't want things to be fair.
You want unmerited favor of God. I hope you'll praise him today.
I hope you'll begin to count the little things that happen
in your life. You start expecting God, you'll
start seeing him. He'll be there.