How are you doing with the series we are in?  It’s pretty aggressive.  It’s called ‘Real Faith Disrupts.’  The scripture we keep turning to is from Jesus’ brother James.

James 1:17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless… 19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. 20 How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? NLT

What do you think when you hear that?  James says, if you claim to have faith and it doesn’t disrupt your life, demons do that too.  Wow.

We opened this series with the words of Jesus.  In Luke 14 Jesus said, ‘Count the cost.’  Before becoming a Christian, think it through and count the cost.  Why would Jesus say that?  Because becoming a disciple of Jesus will cost you everything so it’s important to think it through and not rush into that decision.  What is the cost?  Ownership.  When I become a disciple of Jesus, I don’t own myself anymore.  And what this world cares about doesn’t matter to me. Jesus owns me.  That changes everything.  If I own myself, I make decisions that are best for me and what I want.  And many times, that can become selfish.  However, if Jesus owns me, I make decisions that are based on what Jesus wants.  We should walk through every area of our lives and ask ourselves, does Jesus own me in this area?  Church.  Scripture.  Money.  Relationships.  Heaven.  My body.  How I live.  Everything.  My mouth.  My attitude.

Let’s read about it.

Galatians 5:16 I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do, and then you won’t always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to. 17 For we naturally love to do evil things that are just the opposite from the things that the Holy Spirit tells us to do; and the good things we want to do when the Spirit has his way with us are just the opposite of our natural desires. These two forces within us are constantly fighting each other to win control over us, and our wishes are never free from their pressures. TLB

Do you see it?  There is a battle and it’s a battle of ownership.  Who owns you?  If I surrender my life to Jesus and give Him ownership, my faith in Jesus will disrupt my life.  It will change how I live.

Last week Sam asked the question, what is the Bible to you?  It was an excellent talk because he drew a clear picture for us.  Sam started his talk and said, God wants us to live a great life and loves us enough to give us the Bible.  But if we own ourselves, we won’t have much interest in the Bible.  In fact, what God says in scripture will probably become a burden to us.  Why?  We will think we know a better way to find joy in life without God.  And we will view the Bible as just empty words that have no real meaning for us today.

But if we give ownership to Jesus, we will crave the Bible because it is the one place that will give us spiritual life.  Remember the verse Sam gave us from Psalms?

Psalms 119:49 These words hold me up in bad times. MSG

The question is, has your faith in Jesus disrupted your view of the Bible?

Today, I ask a question about grace.  Has God’s grace changed you?  Another way of saying it is, has your faith in Jesus changed the way you view yourself and how you treat others?

These past couple of months have been a little more intense than normal.  You see, in the last few months, three people who used to attend MRC and were baptized passed away.  One passed away from cancer, I did the funeral.  One passed away from alcohol abuse, I did the funeral.  The other passed away but we don’t know any details.  Three more people wanted to meet because they had stage four cancer. When I was called into all these situations, do you know the one question they wanted answered?

For clarity, let me share with you what they didn’t ask.  They didn’t ask, ‘How much money is in my 401k?’  They didn’t ask, ‘How many likes did my Instagram pic get?’  They didn’t ask, ‘Do people think I am a success?’  You see, none of those questions matter.  What matters is, that we will all stand before God someday and on that day, we will want to know that everything is right between us and God.  The question they want answered is this, ‘How can I know I will be in heaven?’  That is the question that matters.

I immediately shared with them what Paul wrote in Romans.

Romans 3:23, 12:3 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.

…Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. MSG

To understand grace, you must understand that you have nothing to do with it.  You can’t create it.  You can’t earn it.  You can’t make it happen.  All you can do is accept it.  Grace is 100% God.  The way the Message Version explains it is so helpful.  The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us.  That’s grace.  It’s 100% God.  Notice, you have nothing to do with it.  You can only accept it.

But you see, as clear as scripture is, this is almost too good to be true.  Many of the people I meet struggle to believe this.  They struggle because they know it’s not fair.  When they look back over their life, they know they could have done more.  They could have been more committed to their family or church.  They could have made better decisions.  They look back and feel regret and disappointment because they know they came up short of any standard God has.  That’s when I remind them, me too.  We are all in the same situation.  We all come up short.  No one can be the people we want to be.  So, God did it for us.  And if you think it’s unfair, you’re right.  That’s why every time we think about grace, we get quiet and it can bring tears to our eyes because we know, we don’t deserve it.

Again, as true as it is, it is still hard to believe.  They want to believe it, but they feel this sense of responsibility and believe ‘I could have done more’.  And I tell them, it doesn’t work like that.  No one can be good enough or do enough good things to earn their way into heaven. Then I share with them more scripture.

Galatians 2:21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. NLT

I remind them, that if we could make it into heaven based on what we do, there was no reason for Jesus to die, be resurrected, and break the curse of sin over our lives.  That’s grace, it’s 100% God.  All we can do is accept it.

I then turn to scripture to show them what the Bible says happens when we embrace God, who He is, and what He has done.  Are you ready?  Many Christians struggle to believe what I am about to share with you.  Brace yourself.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. NIV

Let’s take a time out and talk about this for a second.  If you are struggling to believe Jesus would ever accept you or you would ever enjoy heaven, please listen carefully.  The first thing you need to think through is this: you come up short of who you are supposed to be, and you can’t do anything about it.  That doesn’t make you evil, that makes you human.  When you admit this reality and ask Jesus to forgive you and give Jesus ownership of your life, scripture teaches that God pours the righteousness of Jesus into you.  And from that day forward, when God sees you, God sees the righteousness of Jesus in you.  Everything is right between you and God.  You can finally relax and let go of fear.

That’s grace.  You can’t create it.  You can’t earn it.  You can’t make it happen.  All you can do is accept it.  Grace is 100% God.  And from that day forward, you will have to focus on God, who He is, and what He did.  You need to focus on the goodness, the grace, that God has brought into your life.

Please hear me, this is so important, and here’s why.  When you focus on God and what He has brought into your life, that’s when you begin to change.  When you remind yourself of how unfair it was and yet Jesus loved you that much, it changes you.  It will change how you view yourself and you will change how you treat others.

I want to read it for you.

Galatians 5:22 When the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. TLB

When you focus on who God is and what He has done and give ownership to Jesus, it changes you.  However, the opposite is true too.  If you focus on your past, your sins, your failures, and your regrets, and you embrace your low self-esteem, and your self-rejection, it will never lead to change.  You will stay stuck.  Change comes when you pursue God.  Change comes when you focus on who God is and what He has done for you.  Change comes when you remind yourself that you are filled with the righteousness of Jesus and embrace that everything is good between you and God.

Please hear me.  You can accept Jesus and call yourself a Christian, but if you are not focusing and pursuing Jesus, you will feel stuck.  You will feel like you are walking through life with a spiritual limp.  Why?  Because when don’t focus on God’s grace, you are telling God, ‘Thank you for a possible new life with the righteousness of Jesus, but I want to stay stuck and live in my sin, my failure, and my regret.’

If you have given ownership of your life to Jesus, you are going to have to accept who you are spiritually.  That means, when God sees you, God sees the righteousness of Jesus in you.  Everything is right between you and God.  That’s when change happens.

But, if you don’t give ownership of your life to Jesus, you will stay stuck.  Your spiritual experience will never be what Jesus died to give you.

I must ask you.  Has God’s grace changed you?  Has your faith in Jesus disrupted how you view yourself and how you treat others?  Or do you continue to stay stuck and focus on your past?  Your sins?  Your failures?  Your regrets?

Before we close with communion, I want to talk briefly about God’s grace and how we live out life.  When you accept God’s grace, it’s true that everything is right between you and God.  It’s true that God pours the righteousness of Jesus into you.  It’s all true.

Now, the reality is you must live out your life.  If you were in debt before meeting Jesus, you will need to work on getting out of debt with Jesus.  If you were wrestling with sin and addiction before meeting Jesus, you will need to work on ending those habits with Jesus.  If you were experiencing real mental health issues of anxiety, fear, and stress before meeting Jesus, you will need to work on finding healing with Jesus.  If you struggled with friendships before meeting Jesus, you will need to work on being a better friend with Jesus.

I tell you this to say, that the real-life issues we had before giving ownership to Jesus will still be there and we will need to work through them.  But here is the difference.  As we focus on God, who He is, and what He did for us, God empowers us to work through all those real-life issues.  You see some people believe when they accept Jesus’ grace, they can continue to live life with no change because Jesus will fix everything.  That’s not true.  Grace fixes our relationship with God, and it empowers us to view ourselves differently and treat others differently.  But if we do nothing, nothing will change.  Grace empowers us to make the changes we are supposed to make.

Before I gave my life to Jesus as an adult, I had low self-esteem.  I didn’t like who I was.  I was extremely angry, and I didn’t know why.  My desire to be stunningly wealthy was more important to me than loving God.  When I gave ownership of my life to Jesus, those things didn’t magically go away.  It took time.  As I pursued Jesus, and I learned about God’s grace, I began to change.  The word people use is discipleship.  As I read the bible, read books, and made changes in my habits, over time, things changed for me.

Grace is like being in a dark room and someone gives you a flashlight.  The flashlight can fix everything, but you have to make the choice to turn it on.  If you don’t, you will be holding a flashlight while at the same time stumbling through the dark room.  Grace empowers us but we must make right choices.

Here is what I want you to do today.  I want you to prepare for communion by asking these questions in your mind.  Has God’s grace changed me?  Do I focus on who God is and what He has done for me leading me to feel love and courage?  Do I continue to focus on my sin, my failure, and my regrets leading me to feel stuck?  Has grace changed the way I view myself?  Has grace changed the way I treat others?

Before you come forward to take communion, if you feel like there is something between you and God or if you feel stuck, please take the time to write it out on the paper given to you.  Maybe it’s a sin that keeps popping up.  Maybe it’s that sense that you are a failure, and you always come up short.  Maybe it’s a life of regrets.  Maybe is a hurt, a wound that someone has given you.  Whatever it is, you are going to have to dump it to accept God’s grace.  Bring the sheet forward, dump it into the trash can, and accept God’s grace at the communion table.