6 AM “Grace For The Gaps: Grace for Supporters”, Dr. Darrell Hall, Monday, March 30, 2026

11:17 Good morning. God bless you for year number five. We are grateful to be back and grateful to be here with you, our family. Thank you all for embracing us as an extension of the ship and of your community and for accepting your pastor's risk and invitation to invite me and five years ago. I am so thankful to be here. I think what's interesting is there are always two sides to every story. Hearing your pastor's side makes me just want to tell my side. and I don't know I'm sure I've shared this with him before but when he called me about us trying this out I said yes but you ever been in a place so low that you say you're gonna do something that you never believe God is gonna let come to pass I was at probably the lowest place in my life in my ministry. I was stressed out from my doctorate degree. I was wanting to quit ministry. After preaching for my entire adult life, I felt like God had done me wrong. I said stuff to God in private that he could have killed me for. And in the lowest place where I felt like, Lord, I should have did something else in my life. I should have been an attorney or a rapper or something.

12:37 you got me out here in these preaching streets and I ain't even ask you for August and my wife can tell the story better than I can I started going to counseling sitting at the feet of God and God extended to me something then that today year number five is just a vivid reminder and that is grace Thank you. And so I am grateful your pastor didn't know it. When he called me, it was like a brother reaching a hand down, remembering you, pulling you up from a dark hole he probably didn't even know I was in. One of the reasons I celebrate your pastor, two reasons. The first is many of us in his generation got a gift he didn't get.

13:35 We got a chance to work it all out in private. before the lights was on us. But from the first day Reginald Sharp opened his mouth, the lights had been on him. And under all that, he still evolved into a wonderful human being, a wonderful preacher. Come on, you can do better than that. It's only one, I promise you. I have searched far and wide. Many are called, but few. Few are chosen in the similitude that he has been. The second thing I love about him is, with all that God has placed on his shoulders, he has this uncanny way of leveraging what he has to help those who don't have it. And he does so without reminding us all the time that when we sit at a table, he's the big dog at the table.

14:34 can you help me thank God again for your pastor for my brother Reginald Wayne Sharp Jr. praise the Lord come on y'all a little bit more virtual ship come on thank God for the man of God and really I just come every year yeah I want to preach I want to be with y'all but I just come to ask him one question you yet holding on well keep on keeping on and we thank God for his wife my sister lady Bree Sullivan Shark come on y'all let's thank God for her even more encourage her heart I can promise you that is a dyad in the force. The Lord don't make mistakes when you put two like that together. When you're individually magnificent, but together you create force multiplication.

15:31 One can put a thousand to flight, but two. That's God, man. Can put ten thousand. And so thousands and ten thousands of demons are on alert. As long as the sharps are alive and well, they're going to be putting hell to flight. And so we want to keep them up, encourage them, not take for granted the warmth, the joy that Lady Bree exudes and shares. And pray that the Lord will continue to strengthen her the same as he does God's man. And then last but not least, my wife is here, y'all. Lady L. Oh what a mighty God we serve Oh, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. If you ever heard me speak in an unknown tongue, you know why. Oh, some things I can't say out loud, Father God, in Jesus' name.

16:30 Oh, yes. And I'm not tired yet. Oh, yes. if the Lord says the same this summer we'll both turn 40 years old praise the Lord 40 years old we've been together since we were 17 and I am so thankful she chose to spend her life with me and I want to make every day worth it, worth the risk and then there's a little church in Conyers Georgia that we lead called TWCC, I can't say the full nickname because I'm in Chicago and everybody at the way know who we are for real, right? It's all love to the Way Community Church. Thank y'all for sharing me this week with fellowship. Y'all pray for me. Love y'all, Lord. We'll not see you soon. Listen, y'all, I want to try to hopefully, you know, stand in this sacred space and help us to mark time.

17:29 I think year five is not a mistake. The number five is the number of grace. The five-fold ministry is an expression of grace. Jesus was pierced five times, one in each hand, one in each foot, one in the side as an expression of grace. The anointing oil has five elements, calamus, cinnamon, myrrh, the oil, and I'm missing one more, cashier. These five elements could only be fused that one way as an expression of God's grace. So today and this week, I would like for us to launch into a conversation about grace and I'm gonna be honest with you because we family I don't have to hide none from you I have tried my best to love the Lord my God with all my mind but there are some things I just can't wrap my mind around I have struggled to understand grace so as you hear and as we engage this week you're not hearing from an expert who's got it all figured out you're hearing from a co-laborer a brother who's walking the path with you trying to understand what is illogical.

18:40 Y'all picking up what I'm putting down? So there's one person I want us to look at his life at different touch points with Jesus. And we'll start in Luke 4. we'll look at his life at different touch points with jesus and try to put his his his current self in conversation with his future self and let's see if the lord might not encourage our hearts along the way luke chapter four is where we're going to be we're going to look at verses 28 excuse me 38 and 39 two verses about a man named peter Thank you. two verses about Peter Luke chapter 4 once you found it would you acknowledge by saying amen the word of the Lord says in the New American Standard Bible then he got up that is Jesus and left the synagogue and entered Simon's home now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever and they asked him, that is Jesus, to help her.

19:56 And standing over her, Jesus rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and served them. I want you to see the scene. We are at Peter's house. Peter's mother-in-law is there and she's sick. Jesus walks in because only Jesus can do something Peter was unable to do. All right. I want us to have a conversation this week about the grace for gaps, grace for the gaps. And today I want to talk about grace for supporters. You may be seated in the presence of the living God. Grace, grace for our gaps. And if you've ever supported somebody, you know how much you need grace. let's pray together God in heaven we pause now in your presence thank you for your love for us for looking beyond our faults to meet our needs I am grateful that you've given me a chance out loud to give you glory for the things you've done for me in private thank you for giving me the grace to preach your word and then giving me grace again and again when I've fallen short of this high calling.

21:23 We thank you for how you blessed us with sacred space at 6 a.m. now for these five years. And we pray that as you have met us that you would meet us again. May we not take your spirit or presence for granted. Consecrate me now to your service, Lord, by your power of grace divine. In Jesus' name we pray that if your heart say amen. Grace for supporters.

21:54 Tobe Tuku Dubim Nguigwe is an Igbo boy from the southwest side of Houston. And it just so happens that I'm a Negro boy from the southwest side of Atlanta. And Tobe is hip-hop's newest phenomenon. and I commend to you his entire music catalog. If you've yet to hear his music or see his videos, I can assure you in advance that you will not be let down. His music is as spiritual as it is ethical. It's as compassionate as it is creative. And I think that many might agree that he is exactly what hip-hop needs in this day and time. he has an album called hood hymns and it's a compilation or confluence of wood of the streets and the sanctuary and he does it in such an honorable way that you don't have to violate your faith in jesus to nod your head to the beat there's a song on the album called i'm not god And there are two sentences, two lyrics that I'm going to pull out and lift for our consideration this morning.

23:15 Toby says, I want to save you. But I'm not God. I want to heal you. But that's not my job. Is that not the song of every supporter?

23:37 Is that not the hymn of everybody who's trying to help somebody? And if we quiet our souls enough, we might be able to hear those lyrics coming from the lips of Peter. As day in and day out, he walks into the in-law suite of his residence and he finds laying there the mother of the woman he loves most. And as a faithful son-in-law, he's done his level best to be a good host, to be hospitable, to be helpful. But every day he's reminded of his own gap and that I can host, but I can't heal. I can help, but I can't heal. I can keep your in-law suite clean. I can make sure you have everything you need in your bathroom. I can support my wife as she supports you. But every day I walk out of here and the fever that remains reminds me of who I'm not yet.

24:37 and whatever I may become one day today, I am unable. A supporter knows that gap between my desire and my deficit. A supporter knows that gap between being helpful and helpless at the same time. What you mean, Reverend? I mean, I can give all I have to give, knowing deep in my soul that all I have to give you won't be enough to fix it. You ever gave somebody your all and your all wasn't enough to fix it?

25:26 Here's a major key and that is this. The gap for the supporter is in realizing that offering all I can still won't be enough for all you need. my friend the Reverend Dr. Janice Williams would say to preach about grace in this space is the resolve there is grace for whatever gap you may find yourself in and some of us don't need the story of Peter do we we can think about people in our own lives we tried to help but we knew even if I give you all I can to help you the truth is all my help won't get you to where you need to be so there's a wrestling there isn't it in one vein you you want to be mad at them for being helped or needing to be helped beyond your capacity to help in another vein when they walk out of the room you look at yourself in the mirror in shame trying to figure out why can't I do this for the person I wish I could help?

26:31 And somewhere in between of being mad at them for needing too much help and being mad at yourself for not being able to give more than you had to give, there's frustration with God that he will put you in this dynamic anyway. Why, Lord, would you give me a desire of this magnitude and then force me to see a deficit of this magnitude? why would I want to heal but not be able to that's the burden of every supporter that we'll do whatever we can to help someone but what we do won't be won't be enough why is this important? I think this is an important conversation because under the sound of my voice even now there are anointed people that doubt the oil on your life because you cannot save the people in your own house. There are gifted people who love the Lord and he heard your cry under the sound of my voice right now who doubt your own intimacy with God Yeah.

27:51 Because I can't heal the people in my own home. So what do you do when you mature enough to anticipate this so it don't rock you emotionally when it catches you off guard? What do you do when you've grown enough to know, hey, I remember from the lumps of yesteryear that I'm going to try to help. But I already know deep inside that my help will only go so far. How do I still help knowing that my help won't fix it for you? that's the burden of the supporter asking a question that can't be answered but still being filled all the while with the love of God and the spirit of God to try to make you show up for somebody in support but here's the blessing of the supporter the blessing of the supporter is that we fight the urge to fix and embrace the calling to nurture ecosystem Yes.

28:50 The blessing of the supporter is that we fight the urge to fix and we embrace the calling to nurture ecosystem. What you mean, Reverend? Here's all I'm saying. Supporters are never called to fix it for them. Supporters are called to give the gift of environment. reverend why is the environment so important because earlier in this same chapter jesus found himself in an environment that was not faithful enough for him to work to bring healing so he left the environment because there was not enough faith around for him to do something in it but when he comes to peter's house he realizes even though peter don't have the capacity to lay his hands on and heal. Peter has enough faith to give me the ecosystem to do what only I can do. Is there any supporter in the house who can testify or ever?

29:49 And I'm so glad that I found peace in the grace of knowing that God didn't call me to fix it. He just called me to keep the faith high. He just called me to set the temperature in the room. to be the thermostat of faith in the environment because i can't do for you what you need but i know somebody who can and if i keep the environment where it needs to be after a while grace is gonna find you and me so then picture Peter is a picture of us of holding it all together when you're in between with inability just because you ain't been able to do something about it yet don't mean Jesus won't do something after a while so while you're in the gap between what you desire but what you cannot perform you've got to hold it all together because you are the last line that keeps the environment where God needs it to be in order for God to work that's why the devil is after your faith that's why the devil is after your joy that's why the devil attacks your peace because the devil knows if you stop believing God can't move is there anybody who can testify that's why I woke up hell in this morning to come and seek your face so you can Fill me with your spirit.

31:19 I'm in a gap but I won't be here always in Acts chapter 5 when I read it it's going to blow your mind Acts chapter 5 verse 15 and 16 says to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets do you see it? So that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any of them. The people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together as well, bringing people who were sick or tormented with unclean spirits. And they were all being what church? Heal. question how could the Peter who was unable to heal his own mother-in-law in his house one day be able to heal perfect strangers with his shadow if we bring future peter in the conversation with present peter what would future peter tell present peter future peter would say listen present peter i know you love your wife and i know you love her mama and i know she's been in your house all this time but you can't bring the fever down but i promise you if you hold what you got after a while you're gonna have a healing virtue flowing through you that you couldn't even imagine what would present peter ask future peter present peter will ask future peter future peter i hear what you're saying and i want to stay encouraged to keep my faith high but what will i have between where i am and where you are to get me to become the person i'm not today what's gonna happen between luke and acts I know it ain't Friday, but we can jump there real quick.

33:22 He died. Didn't he die? Is there anybody who can give God praise for the fact that his cross will bridge your... The cross is not just an emblem we look to.

33:48 It's a bridge we walk across. to get us from the gap of who we are to who we will. So if I'm a supporter rev and I gotta live in this space where I can't do nothing about it What's the grace of God for me?

34:11 Grace for a supporter is spelled different Grace for a supporter is spelled R-E-L-E-A-S-E Grace for a supporter is spelled R-E-L-E-A-S-E. I want you to try something, and I'm telling you in advance that it might be a little traumatic for you. I don't want to trigger nothing in this room that we don't have the spiritual capacity to help you close before you leave out of here. But I'm ask you to do something with me that may hurt to do it But if you do it by faith, it'll help you in ease. I want you to take your hands and Open them Because grace for the supporter is spelled R E L E A S E who do you need to release?

35:16 What do you need to release? You got to release the needs of those that you have helped knowing that my help can't do nothing about their real issue. What you mean, Reverend? I can lend you money, but I can't fix the fact that you got poor money management skills. I can cover the cost of your rehab, but I can't heal the hole in your soul that you think only the bottle can fill. I can give you a ride to work while I'm on the way, but I don't have it to buy you a new car today. I can babysit your child every now and then, but I cannot make you be the parent God chose you to be when God gave you the child. I can give you the clothes off my back, but I can't make Chicago winters any warmer And some of y'all thinking, Rev, my problem ain't the people who I tried to help but couldn't help enough.

36:28 My problem is the people I helped, and after they got healed, they act like my help didn't have nothing to do with it. Well, I've accepted the fact that I can't do everything people need. My issue is with the people who I helped. And while I helped them, Jesus healed them. And after they got healed, they forgot all about mine. There's a clause in this text that's curious to me. The text says that Jesus comes into the house, sees Peter's mother-in-law, stands over her, rebukes the fever after he heals her. The Bible says she gets up, him and Al, and serves them. notice what it didn't say it didn't say she got up and served him it says she got up and served them some of us are too spiritual for our own good that after we get the healing only god could give we forget about the people god used to hold us down when we didn't have the healing we got What you mean, Rev?

37:40 I mean, you thank Jesus for the new money management skills, but you forgot all about the person who let you hold some when you didn't have two diamonds to rub together. You thank Jesus for healing your hurt so that you can put the bottle down, but you forgot about the person who offered to pay for your rehab. You thank Jesus for the new car that can get you from point A to point B, but you forgot about the person who gave you a ride to work when they was on their way somewhere else. You thank the Lord for helping you finally be the parent God called you to be But you forgot about the family and friends who babysit your child for free and did not harm your child let us not be healed and entitled at the same time is there anybody who can call a name out right now and say god i thank you for the one who put five dollars in my pocket i thank you for the one who gave me a couch to sleep on i thank you for the one who put food on my table i thank you for the one who put clothes on my Thank you.

38:42 Peter didn't just jump the gap from Luke 4 to Acts 5. He walked across the bridge of the cross. I'm done. I love being here in Chicago with y'all because y'all city. Don't tell Atlanta I said this.

39:15 Y'all city is my favorite city in America. Don't listen, Atlanta. I didn't mean it. Is the truth right? I'm awestruck by the architecture. I love the beauty of the design.

39:36 I'm amazed by the minds that have contributed over the years to develop the skyline. I like the river that flows through. But the river that flows through creates gaps. If you want to be anointed, you got to embrace the gaps.

39:58 If you want rivers of living water to flow through your belly, you got to know that where the river flows, gaps will be created. but let your own city preach to you with the gaps the river creates there are bridges that have been designed to get you from one side of the gap to the other one there's a bridge I believe it's on Cherry Avenue it's called a swing bridge this swing bridge gives us the faith we need to hold on in the middle because a swing bridge is always attached to one side what a spring bridge will do is a swing bridge, it will swing away from one side so that whatever's on the river can float through then it'll swing back in place. The reason you can have the faith to know that God is going to bring grace into your life when you're on the side of the bridge, don't touch because as long as the bridge is on that side and it never falls off of that side, after a while I know that if I wait, that grace is going to swing my way.

41:01 All I come to tell the supporters in the room is that for the people in your life that you can help but you can't heal, you got to remind them that if you hold what you got sooner or later, grace is going to swing your way and bridge your gap. Some of y'all looking at me like, Reverend, what can I tell the person who I can help but can't heal? What word can I give to them while they're still sick before Jesus enters the premises? Tell me something I can deposit into their soul that can keep them waking up day after day before healing comes. I'm going to say it to you, but you should know it better than I do. Because these are the words of one of your own. I got three words for you. And if the Lord says the same, I'll see you tomorrow. When you see somebody you can help but cannot heal, here's all you got to tell them. In the meantime, keep.