You would think you had just said you were a terrorist.  Instead you mentioned you that you celebrated grace.  For some the reaction is the same – fear, anger, attack, excommunication.  They say, “There is grace, but there is also responsibility.”  Immediately, many attach conditions.  ”If you believe in grace, then you will…”  and “We can’t let people feel too free with God or they’ll do whatever they want!”

They said the same thing to Jesus. “Who is this man who eats (shows favor) to sinners?”

Grace is frightening.  It is something greater than we will ever understand; it is what we will forever admire and adore in heaven; and it is the only thing that can only real desire in our hearts to love God.

Let’s be clear what grace is.  It is not overlooking sin.  That is a weak, diluted, and misunderstood view of grace.  Grace is the unparalleled  passion of God for man.  We see it as He gives His Son on the cross to become sin so that we can not just be free from our guilt, but so that we can enjoy His favor, intimacy, and right-ness.  That’s right – so that we can enjoy right-ness or righteousness with Him.  Not in the some day, or in “that” day, but in the moment we allow that grace to intersect the specific sin and guilt of our own life.

Grace is so overwhelming and freeing that when we do receive it, it ignites within us a desire to repent, love, serve, and worship the One who frees us!  Grace received ignites desire!  It is so overwhelming and freeing that it strips us of all control, ability to repay, and ability to claim any justification for receiving it.

All we can do is stand in awe.

There is something inside us that wants to work for it, earn it, pay it back, beat ourselves up about, fear that one sin could make it all go away, or that it is now our task to live in such a way to keep it flowing to us.

Then grace is no longer exciting, free, or overwhelming.

It becomes common, under my control, and something to manage.  I end up with fear, guilt, uncertainty, and with a list of rules connected to my grace.   I also pass that version of grace onto others.  Gone is the joy, awe, and freedom.

Welcome to Christianity in the 21st century – impotent, weak, rule-based, tradition-driven, condemning, and angry.

Which grace do you celebrate?  The one that puts my right-ness with God in my hands or the one that is rests squarely in Christ crucified and resurrected for our complete freedom, forgiveness, and favor?

Grace is an uncomfortable place.  In grace you let go of control.  You didn’t arrive in it by being good and you can’t stay in it by being good.  The untethered favor of God comes to you by the love of Jesus Christ and frees you from your past, your guilt, your regrets, and your shame.  And it is uncomfortably freeing – especially when you’ve held on tightly to so much in the past.

No more measuring yourself against others.  No more judging others.  No more comparison.  No more resentment.  No more evaluating your goodness based on your actions.

Uncomfortable freedom.  Its hard to take in.  We want to work for it, feel guilty for it, use the grace of God as a way of continuing our old habits of making ourselves righteous.

We even look for faith environments (what we call churches) that help us maintain some control and the ability to work for our goodness.  We want lists, boundaries, preaching that calls people out, a place that keeps us from those who don’t keep the rules.  Order, control, boundaries, lists, who’s in/who’s out, definable spirituality – ahh… much better.

They didn’t like this freedom in Jesus’ day or Paul’s day.  It upset the system.  It undermined authority.  It was too freeing.  It led to sinners hanging around.  It led to individual connection with God.  It led to passion, expression, and breaks with tradition.  It was wild and couldn’t be controlled.

Hang on to your guilt, regrets, fear, and bitterness.  Define your goodness by what you do and don’t do.   You’ll find yourself in a well-controlled environment of faith.  Everything will be in order and there will be no life, no desire, no power.

Or personally receive and experience Christ’s favor, grace, forgiveness, and release.  Let go of trying to manage you.  The next moments will be uncomfortably freeing.   Next set others free.  Let go of trying to define, control, and manage their lives –  something even more uncomfortably freeing.  There in that place your heart will come alive with desire, life, sincerity, and motivation.

Such is the uncomfortable place of grace.

Overwhelmed, swallowed up, given over to, submerged, surrounded by – this is the life Christ invites us to. Life completely overwhelmed by His gracious favor and love. It seems hard to believe, difficult to take in, and unnatural. Grace for me when I don’t deserve it? Favor for me when I’ve failed so miserably? There’s only one good response to that depth of love – completely surrender and immerse yourself in it.

Immerse yourself in His love, grace, life. Immerse yourself in His death. Immerse yourself in His forgiveness. Without hesitation, fear, or guilt, fall into Christ.

Today at encounter we’ll be baptizing – one of the greatest pictures of what it means to be completely immersed into Christ. For a moment they will be overwhelmed, submerged, and immersed into the waters. Forever they will be overwhelmed, submerged, and immersed into Christ.

What a beautiful picture that God has given to us! Immersed in a moment and immersed forever into the depths of Himself.

In most homes, there one chair that is “the chair”. You know the one. Its the best spot in the living room. Its right in front of the television. Nearby is a table, lamp, and the remotes. It is the place to be! Whoever sits there is in the place of prominence and control!

For years, pastors, authors, and Christian speakers have asked the question, “Who sits on the throne of your heart?” Much like the living room chair, it is a great visual for considering who is truly in control of our life, who reigns over it, who we serve, etc. Jesus took our guilt, shame, condemnation, and sin so that we could be forgiven and so that He could become Lord of our life. He came to set us free so that we could know the joy of Him sitting in our chair!

When we realize the immensity of His love and grace for us, we surrender our lives to Him. We relinquish control and remove ourselves from the throne of our heart. We willingly surrender control to Him. We allow Him to give direction, instruction, and motivation over every area of life. He assumes His rightful place of Lordship over us.

Then what?

What happens next? What does our life then look like? How do we know we have taken that step? How do we avoid stepping back into control?

To help answer the question, we turn to a man who walked and talked with Jesus. We listen to a man who personally experienced this process in his own life – not just in theory, but in practicality. We turn to the disciple John.

In 1 John 4:20-21, he writes:

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that He who loves God must love his brother also.

Woah. Did you catch that? John is saying that the real evidence we have truly surrendered the chair of our heart to God is our love for others. Not a passive, in word only kind of love, but a love driven by sacrifice, service, and passion. Love for God is seen in love for others. You cannot let Him sit in the chair and still hate your brother.

Let’s go one step further.

Based on Jesus’ own words and actions, the greatest surrender is not just giving the throne to God. There is a deeper level of surrender and greater demonstration of love. It happens when we surrender the chair/throne/place of importance to others.

Real surrender happens when:

• husbands put their wife in that chair
• wives put their husband in that chair
• friends put their friends in that chair
• parents put their children in that chair
• children put their parents in that chair
• forgiven people put their enemy in that chair
• grace filled people put the undeserving in that chair

Now we can ask the question again.

When it comes to the chair of your heart, who sits there as the greatest evidence that you have been loved by God? Who do you serve with sacrifice, patience, and joy? Of the “neighbors” in your life, who do you love like yourself?

Where do you find the strength to face the greatest issues of your life? How do you find the strength in your heart to:

• forgive someone who hurt you?
• serve someone who doesn’t deserve it?
• overcome a destructive habit?
• humble yourself and ask forgiveness?
• sacrifice for someone else?
• persevere when you don’t have the strength?
• restore a broken relationship?

A tremendous amount of power is needed to face any one of these situations. They require a level of power and strength because none of them are natural to the human condition. This kind of power can only come from God. He longs for us to experience it as did one of the main writers of the New Testament.

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. ephesians 1:19-20

How do we tap into that kind of power?

Jesus Christ experienced that power when He was resurrected from the dead, given a place of prominence over all creation, and returned to intimacy with the Father. Did He get it just because He was the Son of God? How did He experience it?

He experienced in the same way that you and I can experience it – when we completely surrender our will and life to God.

Jesus wrestled with what He wanted and what His Father wanted when He prayed before facing crucifixion – “Not My will, but Your will be done.” He let go of what He wanted and submitted to rejection, suffering, pain, a crown of thorns, and a cross of punishment.

When He completely surrendered everything, He experienced the ultimate in power.

Power for the real areas of our life waits on the other side of our complete surrender.

• humility first, honor afterwards
• serving first, greatness afterwards
• brokenness first, healing afterwards
• sacrifice first, fulfillment afterwards
• surrender first, freedom afterwards
• death first, life afterwards

These are foreign to the experience of man, but are common to the ways of God. For those who choose this path, they experience the greatest power of the universe = the power of Christ to overcome all things.

no one can give what they have not first received. this principles holds true in relationships as much as it does in any other area of life. I can only pass on the degree of forgiveness, grace, mercy, love, and favor if I have truly experienced them at some point in my life.

in reality though, we all have relational gaps.

no one has experienced every relational grace in their life. we all have experienced hurts, disappointments, and failures at the hands of others. whatever we have experienced negatively we also pass on to others. to those who have experienced great condemnation and rejection in their life, they have a tendency to relate to others in the same way. to those who feel like they never measure up, they pass along to others a nagging sense of never being good enough.

there is a way for the gaps to be filled.

God’s desire is to not just fill the gaps of our heart, but to overwhelm them with His forgiveness, acceptance, favor, and freedom from condemnation. those gaps are filled as I begin to truly experience these in my life. this is something far greater than mental agreement or doctrinal agreement. this is allowing the reality of how God sees me in Christ change who I am.

as I am changed, I will change how I relate to others.

Jesus sent out the men He trained with a basic principle: “freely you have received, freely give.” as I truly receive and experience how God loves me and sees me, I am to turn and then offer the same to others.

all of this brings me to a shocking revelation:

• my greatest relational struggles are not with who people are. my greatest struggle is in receiving how God sees me – my identity.
• the answer to my relationship struggles are not in making others change. the answer lies in being changed by how God sees me.

God, help me to receive all of who you are and how you love me. Then, and only then will my life and my relationships change.

Do you ever experience something that completely overwhelms you… in a good way? Something that so surprises you and catches you off guard that it brings you to a place of deep gratefulness, humility, and peace? That is exactly what Jesus Christ offered when He walked on this earth and continues to offer today.

He offers something far beyond religious effort, demands, or laws. He offers to those who are tired of the struggle and worn by the journey overwhelming love, acceptance, and grace.

The followers of Jesus in the New Testament were well aware of this overwhelming love. Reading through Ephesians 1:3-12, you begin to understand something of what overwhelmed them.

• awareness they were chosen by God for a purpose
• freedom to share in all that God is
• release from guilt, shame, and failure
• acceptance inside the relationship of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit
• full forgiveness
• being favored and treasured by God
• ability to know the mind of God
• sharing in the inheritance of God
• being the absolute delight of God
• and all of available now… not some day later

Overwhelming? Difficult to take in? Exactly. That is what it was meant to be – a love so overwhelming that we would never get over it. Something so big that it would change how we saw ourselves, saw others, saw God. Something that would free us. Something that would bring a revolution to the soul. Something that would cause us to be re-made; born-again.

everyone has a lens through which they see life. like a tinted glass it colors everything they see – their circumstances, their problems, their friends, their family, themselves.

that same lens affects how a person sees God.

some would say, “Well they just need to read the Bible to find out who God is.” while I would agree, I would also know that their lens affects how they read the Bible.

one reads and only finds rules, condemnation, and rejection;

another reads and finds hope, help, acceptance, and grace.

one reads and finds a God who is distant, angry, and guilt inducing;

another reads and finds forgiveness, mercy, and love.

one reads and finds disconnected ancient literature;

another finds personal words of affection and relationship with God.

the lens of your heart will determine who and what you find.

the most religious people in Jesus’ day read the Scriptures. yet what they found was far from life. instead they found rules, laws, condemnation, and ways to oppress people with empty religion. Jesus confronts them with these words…

You diligently studythe Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,yet you refuse to come to me to have life. john 5:39-40

the same Scriptures that were meant to bring life were tainted by the condition of their heart – their lens.

what lens do you look through when you read the Scriptures? do you only find confusion, rules, and condemnation or do you look for hope, life, forgiveness, and love?

Jesus waits there for those who have a lens to see!

In the same way, there are sights, sounds, tastes, and joys in Heaven that can never be fully grasped here on earth. They will only be understood the day we are birthed into it. That day will be a new kind of birthday.

Aaron wrote the song several years ago at the passing of his father. It was an expression of hope and comfort for Aaron and the family. Here’s the song, “A New Kind of Birthday”.

It is the Christians, O Emperor, who have sought and found the truth, for they acknowledge God.
They do not keep for themselves the goods entrusted to them.
They do not covet what belongs to others.
They show love to their neighbors.
They do not do to another what they would not wish to have done to themselves.
They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in this way they make them friends.
It has become their passion to do good to their enemies.
They live in the awareness of their smallness.
Every one of them who has anything gives ungrudgingly to the one who has nothing.
If they see a traveling stranger, they bring him under their roof.
They rejoice over him as over a real brother, for they do not call one another brothers after the flesh, but they know they are brothers in the Spirit and in God.
If they hear that one of them is imprisoned or oppressed for the sake of Christ, they take care of his needs. If possible they set him free.
If anyone among them is poor or comes into want while they themselves have nothing to spare, they fast two or three days for him.
In this way they can supply any poor man with the food he needs.
This, O Emperor is the rule of life of the Christians, this is their manner of life.
– Asistides 137 AD