Beach Life - Uncomfortable Grace
Throughout this “Beach Life” series, we will explore Jesus' mission and values and how he calls us to follow him and make his mission and values our own. We kicked off this series by discussing Beach Church's mission. Our mission is to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus. Our Mission answers the question of " why” we exist, and our Guiding Values answer the question of " how” we fulfill our mission.
We could gather every weekend for worship, distribute food to 500 families every week, go on mission trips, have life groups, and have a ministry for children with special needs, but without our guiding values, we would not be leading people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus.
The Bible tells us without love, we are nothing.
Our Guiding Values, shaped by the love of Jesus demonstrated while he lived on earth, will help us fulfill our mission.
The Values are:
The Values are:
Life-Changing Truth
Transparent Living
Captivating Celebration
Uncomfortable Grace
Selfless Service
Today, we are going to talk about our third guiding value:
UNCOMFORTABLE GRACE
That is, we believe that:
FOLLOWERS OF JESUS GIVE THE SAME LIMITLESS GRACE THEY HAVE RECEIVED FROM GOD.
If you are a follower of Jesus – the Grace god has given to you isn’t only FOR you – but it is also FOR you to GIVE to others. We are going to keep talking about that – but for now let’s look at the passage of scripture that best demonstrates UNCOMFORTABLE GRACE.
Let’s read together from Colossians 3.
Colossians 3:12-13 (NLT2)
12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
If you grew up in church, you might be thinking to yourself, the two words “Uncomfortable” and “Grace” are two words that do not go together.
“Uncomfortable Grace”
We are taught that GRACE is wonderful. And it is.
That GRACE is comforting. And it is.
That Grace is AMAZING. And it is.
When we pray for others, we often pray that they would experience the GRACE of God in their lives…because God’s GRACE is a good thing. But – what is GRACE? The Word “Grace” can be a little confusing. For instance, I grew up saying “Grace” before I ate a meal. My family would close our eyes and say GRACE.
Bless us oh Lord, For these thy Gifts, Which we are about to receive, From thy Bounty, Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Then, after I surrendered my life to Jesus and received Him as my Savior and received forgiveness for my sins, people used the word differently. The mealtime prayer was no longer called Grace. That was for the Catholics…and the Clark W. Griswold family. Now the mealtime prayer was called a Blessing…”Who wants to say the Blessing?”
No wonder people can get confused the churches choice of vocabulary.
For the sake of the message, Grace is not referring to a mealtime prayer. Grace is not the name of a woman who is very uncomfortable right now.
You can jot this down in your Lifenotes.
God’s grace is best described as:
GRACE: GOD’S GOODNESS TO THOSE WHO DESERVE PUNISHMENT.
I deserve to be punished for my sins.
I have lied.
I have stolen.
I have cheated.
I have looked at pornography.
I have hated in my heart.
I have been drunk.
I have sinned in my anger and lost my temper.
I have been arrogant.
I have been filled with pride.
I have wanted the spotlight on me, rather than God.
I have been selfish, unfaithful to God, and unfaithful to friends.
I have been rude.
I have been impatient with others.
I have carried grudges in my heart.
I have not helped somebody when they needed it the most.
I have not cared for my body, my wife, and even my children the way I should.
I have rejected my Creator.
I have used the name of Jesus as a cuss word.
I have openly mocked followers of Jesus for living for Jesus.
I have not worshipped God.
I have not lived for God.
I have not loved others the way I should.
And…I deserve to be punished for my rebellion against my CREATOR GOD.
God says in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 18:4
“…all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die.”
All people belong to God…and since we belong to Him, he makes the rules…and he says, “The person who sins is the one who will die.” The punishment that I deserve for my rebellion against God is DEATH. Not only do I deserve to physically die, but I deserve to be punished by experiencing spiritual death.
I deserve to suffer in Hell for ALL eternity. I deserve to be tormented in a fire that is so awful the flames never consume what they burn. An everlasting flame that never goes out.
That is what I deserve. And so do you.
Let that sink in.
You deserve to be punished for your sins.
When you accept that weight of that statement – you can best understand how life-changing the Grace of God is. God’s goodness toward those who deserve punishment.
God’s Goodness is NOT PUNISHING us by giving us what we deserve.
God’s Justice demands that punishment be paid.
God’s LOVE chooses to pay the punishment himself.
Jesus chose to willingly suffer on the cross and pay the price for our sins. God’s rule was that all people who sinned would die. Jesus became a person and paid the penalty as a man for our sin.
The PRICE was paid. The debt was satisfied.
And the relationship between God and People was redeemed. That is the GRACE we sing about and embrace.
Amazing Grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I’m found
Was blind but now I see
So, if you feel hopeless, discouraged, overwhelmed. If you wake up every morning and your past sins weigh you down. If you feel like a failure in life. If you think that God will never forgive you for something you have done…I want you to look down at your Life Notes and ask yourself honestly:
WHICH ONE OF YOUR SINS WILL GOD NOT FORGIVE?
Which ONE of your sins do you think God is holding against you?
Have you done something that damaged somebody else so bad you think God will not forgive you for it?
Do you wake up every day with regret? Shame?
Do you go through pill after pill, or bottle after bottle trying to forget the pain you caused?
God has something better for you.
It is called: FREEDOM!
You do not have to be weighed down by the sin of your past. God’s goodness toward you cannot fail. God’s goodness toward you, demonstrated by Jesus on the cross, cannot be watered down, explained away, or made powerless. Jesus has set you free from your sin – and that means he has set you free from shame, from fear, from doubt, and from insecurities about your past mistakes, sin and failure. He has set you free – so stop chaining yourself down by the weight of guilt.
Walk in Freedom. Live in Uncomfortable Grace. And as you live out God’s uncomfortable grace in your own life, ask:
DO YOU ALLOW OTHERS SPACE TO FAIL?
Do you allow other people around you and give them space to fail?
Do you criticize people when they mess up? Do you harp on people around you because they have made poor choices?
Do you whisper about the teenage girl who got pregnant? The mother who drinks too much? The parent losing their temper in the grocery store?
Do you gossip about your neighbors choice of swimwear at the beach? (She is too old to be wearing a bikini…she is 95!)
Weren’t you once like that? (Minus the 95-year-old bikini.)
Didn’t you once make horrible mistakes? Didn’t you once live as a sinner with no hope?
Then, give other people space to fail without judging them. You once made similar choices. You deserved death. You deserved God’s judgement over sin…
But you were made new – So why limit the Grace of God only toward you? Why not demonstrate God’s grace so much it makes other people UNCOMFORTABLE? Followers of Jesus ought to show so much grace, that everybody gets a second, third, fourth, fifth chance.
Kristy and I are talking about camping. I love building a nice hot fire for mornings and evenings…When it comes to camping, the one problem I have with the campfire is the smoke!
Have you ever noticed, when it comes a campfire, the smell of smoke soaks into everything. My hair. My beard. My hat. My clothes. My undies. The tent. The sleeping bags, the van, the tent…
After camping, in order to be clean – I have to do more than change my clothes. I need to take a shower, scrub that smoke off my skin and hair, then put on clean clothes. But, if I only changed clothes to be clean, it would not make sense. The smokey odor would still be on my skin. I would not feel clean – and I would not be clean. Putting on fresh clothes would not fool anybody.
Sometimes people try to do that to feel better.
They start attending church.
They start using the churchy words like grace and peace and Jesus.
They begin doing nice things to other people…
But they have never accepted God’s Grace, personally.
If you would like to receive forgiveness for your sins, all your sins, and begin a relationship with God, and start over…I invite you to surrender all you are, into God’s hands, by receiving Jesus as your Savior.
It looks something like this:
PRAYER OF SURRENDER
Thank you, God, for creating me. I admit that I have sinned, and I deserve to be punished for my sin. Thank you that Jesus paid the punishment for me I deserved on the cross. I believe Jesus died, rose from the dead, and will one day return. I surrender my life to you and receive Jesus as my Savior.
We will continue to change the world around us, when we clothe ourselves with the Grace of God and demonstrate that towards EVERYBODY.