Welcome to the Christmas series called, ‘All I Want for Christmas’. We want you to make the connection that in Jesus, we find everything our souls are looking for. Hope, Peace, Joy, Grace, Salvation, and the Holy Spirit. That makes Jesus the greatest gift.
The challenge we have when talking about these gifts is that life comes against us pretty hard. And when life is rough, it seems impossible to experience those gifts. And that’s why we are jumping into the Christmas story of Jesus. The story can sound wonderful, and romantic, and give us warm feelings, but the reality is, when you read the story, it was a wild story of scandal and hardship. And in the middle of the challenges, God was with Mary and Joseph. God was with Mary traveling around 150 miles, 9 months pregnant. God was with Joseph when Joseph discovered that his girlfriend was pregnant. Their lives were completely thrown upside down and inside out. And that has been the common theme that keeps popping up. The theme is this, we can experience each gift regardless of what we are walking through in life as we focus on and pursue Jesus. Today we talk about grace.
As much as we talk about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness in church, I don’t think people fully experience it. That’s what happened to me. I grew up in church and it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I began to pay attention to and learn about grace. And honestly, it’s 30 years later and I’m still learning about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness for me. What is dangerous about being raised in church is that you hear about these subjects so much that they can become white noise to you. When the pastor talks about grace in your mind you can begin to think, ‘Blah, blah, blah, I already know about grace, I’ve heard all about it, that’s for new people.’ Those thoughts can run through our minds because we have heard about it so much, it has become a common topic. And it loses its impact on our lives. That’s when God’s love, grace, and forgiveness become information and not transformation.
Recently, I was at breakfast with a friend of mine. The waitress came over and they began to talk. When the waitress walked away, my friend said, I have a sad story to tell you. He shared that the waitress shared with him that she likes to work every day, but she refuses to work on Sundays. I asked, why is that? Because that is when church people leave church and come to the restaurant. And they are the worst people to wait on.
How does that happen? People hear about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness in church, but it has become white noise to them. Grace hasn’t transformed how they treat the waitress thirty minutes later. Instead of being the most gracious, the biggest tippers, the most forgiving people, the people who hear about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness have become people to avoid. And if you asked them, ‘Do you know about God’s grace?’ They probably would tell you with confidence, ‘We know all about God’s grace, we did a fill-in-the-blank discipleship about it.’
I want to ask you, has God’s grace transformed you? Has God’s grace changed how you view yourself and how you treat others? To help us process that question, I want to share ten statements with you. And for each statement you agree with, I want you to give yourself one point.
- Because I have made mistakes in my past, I believe today I am a disappointment to God and am stuck in my life, almost like living out God’s plan ‘B’.
- Because I am disappointed with myself, I believe God is disappointed with me.
- I believe God loves others more than me.
- I believe God grows tired of me struggling and failing.
- I feel like I come up short in life, so I live with little to no courage.
- When something bad happens, I believe God is punishing me.
- God’s grace means I am forgiven so moving forward, I don’t have to make changes to my life or live intentionally.
- God’s grace is for me, it doesn’t apply to how I treat others.
- In my spiritual journey, I need spiritual excitement and mood-altering experiences.
- It’s normal for me to be restless in prayer, I struggle with solitude.
What is your score? If you agree with these statements, you may not fully understand or fully have experienced God’s grace. Here’s why. God took our sins, the judgment we deserve, and all our failures and placed them on Jesus. God’s love, grace, and forgiveness means we are 100% redeemed.
I want to read it for you.
Isaiah 53:3-6 He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. NLT
Why would God sacrifice His Son’s life for us? Because God loves us. God knows we have no ability to live out our lives without sin and failure. So, God did it for us. He took our sins, the judgment we deserve, and all our failures and placed them on Jesus so we can be redeemed.
Here is how Scripture puts it.
Romans 3:24 Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. MSG
How beautiful is that?
How do we tap into this pure gift? How do we tap into God’s love, grace, and forgiveness? It begins when we accept who we really are. It’s called humility. We have to accept that we are sinful. We are wounded. And we may not like who we are. And that includes everyone who might consider themselves as super-mature Christians. Those who consider themselves the best of the best Delta Force of Christianity. We bring our sinful, wounded, self-rejection lives to God so God can love us. When we do that, that’s when our spiritual life begins. That’s when we enjoy God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. That’s when we can rest in God’s acceptance of us.
Let’s read how Scripture puts it.
Galatians 3:11-12 The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God – and that’s the real life.” MSG
We can enjoy being loved by God when we focus on and embrace God. We are fully aware of who we are NOT embrace who God is, and embrace what He did. It changes everything. We can finally relax. We no longer have to go out of our way to impress people. We no longer have to be anxious, nervous, or jittery. We no longer have to self-medicate our pain through unhealthy attachment to social media, the drive to succeed, alcohol, self-focus, entertainment, or whatever else we do. And maybe for the first time, we don’t have to live a tit-for-tat life that demands revenge. We don’t have to be fearful or insecure. How is that all possible? Because we were humble. We accepted who we really are and we embraced who God is and what God did. We brought our sins, our wounds, our self-rejection, brought it to God and God accepted us.
But many don’t do that. Instead of focusing on who God is and what God did, they keep focusing on themselves. They assume, ‘I don’t like me so that means God won’t like me.’ So instead of going to God for love, grace, and acceptance, many stay away from God. Why is this? Because instead of focusing on God, they continue to focus on themselves and their failures. Remember, those living in right relationship with God do it by embracing God.
This can happen in the lives of people who attend church. We can be people who attend church and do church activities while at the same time staying away from being in a relationship with God. We can struggle with God’s love, grace, and forgiveness because we are looking at ourselves, our failures, and assuming that there is no way God could redeem us. We can be people in church, we can sing the songs, and struggle to believe that if we focus on God, who He is, and what He did, God will redeem us. Remember, those living in right relationship with God do it by embracing God.
If we struggle to focus on God and keep focusing on ourselves and our failures, we will struggle with God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. We may become fake. We will need to wear a mask when we are with people. We will have to hide the parts we don’t like while making everyone believe we are doing great. We will live a life that hides from God and from others. We call this being an imposter, a fake. I know a lot about being an imposter. It’s how I lived for many years. It’s a terrible way to live.
A couple of things happen when wearing a mask.
First, it’s so painful because deep inside you are torn up and you can never let anyone know about it.
Think about it, if you don’t like yourself, you assume when others find out about the real you, they will reject you too. You can’t let anyone know who you really are.
Because you aren’t real, you have to live in that pain every day. It’s exhausting because it’s so hard to keep up appearances. It’s like the show where the person is on stage and spins 10, 20, 30 plates at the same time. Wouldn’t it just be easier, to be honest, to let the plates fall, and rest? Nope. Not if you are an imposter, you will walk through life in pain and exhaustion.
Secondly, you will struggle to be in long-term, intimate, and healthy relationships.
Why? The imposter doesn’t like themself, so they have no ability to love others well. Do you know what is the number one issue people wrestle with? Self-rejection. Doesn’t that explain why people struggle in relationships. And because they are insecure they have an unhealthy need for people to accept them and approve them. This does serious damage to relationships.
Third, the mask the imposter wears for others to see always looks good. So, the imposter, to make the mask look good, has an unhealthy attachment or pursuit of money, power, fame, looking good on social media, success, recognition, and status.
And because they are insecure, they are always measuring what others are doing. They are jealous and envious of others if they have more money, power, fame, better social media, success, recognition, and status. Image is everything. This does serious damage to how they live out life because it leaves them to be very negative and critical.
Spiritually, because the imposter hides from God, there is a God void in their lives. So, they need excitement and mood-altering spiritual experiences to fill that void.
They won’t have time to go deeper with God. Instead, they search for something outside of themselves to make them feel good. They can’t serve quietly. They can’t attend a church unless it’s exciting. They can’t live an ordinary life. They look for excitement, events, programs, anything that can fill their spiritual void. There is nothing wrong with those things but what matters, scripture teaches, is loving others around you in the ordinary day-to-day life.
The need to fill their God void with anything other than God can do serious damage to their relationship with God. Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk and wrote, ‘The highest level of spiritual development is to be ordinary.’ You see, the imposter can’t do that. They desperately need bigger, better, more excitement.
Why do we wear masks that do so much damage? Because we don’t like who we are. We assume, that if others and God really knew who I am, they would reject me. As an imposter, we are still focused on us and our failures. Remember what scripture said?
Galatians 3:11-12 The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God – and that’s the real life.” MSG
Please hear me. When we bring our sinful, wounded, self-rejection lives to God, that’s when our spiritual life begins. God’s love, grace, and forgiveness are found when we embrace who God is and what He has done. But for all that to happen, we must stop focusing on our failures and focus on God. Focus on who He is and what He has done.
Do you remember Sam’s talk last week? Sam shared these verses.
Romans 8:1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. MSG
Do you see verse 2? A new power is in operation. What is that power? God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. And it’s for you right now, today, and every day. To focus on yourself and your failures and assume God will reject you is a life living under that continuous low-lying black cloud. To focus on who God is and what God has done is to experience God freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
Here is what I want you to do today before you leave. Accept who you really are. Accept that you are sinful. Accept that you are wounded. Accept that you may not even like who you are. Stop hiding and be humble. Bring all of who you are to God and ask God to take all of it. And do you know what will happen? Let me read it for you.
Romans 10:9-10 Say the welcoming word to God – “Jesus is my Master” – embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” MSG
Can you imagin your life if you focused on God, who He is and what He did? Can you imagin being free from focusing on your sins, regets, and failures? It’s grace.