Living A Grace State of Mind

The following video transcript has been lightly edited

 Hi. Have you ever listened to Billy Joel's New York State of Mind, or Jay-Z and Alicia Key's, empire State of Mind? In both songs, the artists are talking about adopting a certain kind of mindset. You know, Billy Joel is talking about the gritty, honest, value of New York City in a way that that is better in his mind than the sense of Hollywood.

Meanwhile, for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, empire State of mind is grabbing on this ideal that in New York there's unlimited potential and possibility and that you can become anything. Both songs sort of try to empower us towards adopting a certain state of mind, an empire state of mind, or a New York state of mind.

Well, in chapter six of Romans, Paul is trying to encourage the readers to adopt a grace state of mind. See, what has happened is in Paul's mind, the all of humanity. It was created to be stewards of God's creation. To live in right relationship with God and each other and to fulfill and flourish in the earth in the way that we would look at flourishing life.

But humanity failed at that. They floundered at it. There was strife and enmity and competition and death. And so God doesn't give up on creation, but instead, stewards Israel. And Israel is supposed to be the healthy stewards, but they fail. And Paul's point in each of these things, even though that happened, grace abounded. And then in the person of Christ, Jesus fulfills God's call for humanity to be stewards who live in relationship to God and relationship to one another and pursue grace and goodness in the world.

And so what Paul's saying to his listeners, Or as readers is that they would adopt this grace state of mind that rather than live in the old way, the way of floundering in which there's enmity or strife or difficulty or competition. That the readers would ignore that old state of mind and live in this new gray state of mind.

And the reason this is important to Paul is because he wants them to understand who they are in Christ and then because of who they are in Christ, how they should live, what mindset they should live with. Because in Paul's belief, what he sketches out is that in Jesus' death and resurrection that we are united to that.

In faith, we are united to that reality and that reality means that death no longer has dominion over us and that we are now these people who are supposed to reflect God's goodness in the world. I can remember in 2003 when Syracuse University won the national championship, my brother and I, we ran around the room like crazy. We won. We won, we won. Now technically we didn't actually play in that game whatsoever, and in fact, we never played for Syracuse basketball, but somehow Syracuse winning meant we won. And that's one of Paul's main ideas is that Jesus win is our win. And therefore, just as the Syracuse basketball team was national champions, we believe we were national champions.

And so what Paul is saying is that because Jesus has won on our behalf, we are to adopt this grace mindset. Now, two things to do this effectively in our life, and the first is just to recognize the difference between a grace mindset. And what Paul talks about is a sin mindset. And the sin mindset is one in which we fail to be good stewards.

We fail to love our neighbor. We fail to operate with kindness and generosity and curiosity. And so Paul's saying, and he knows we're not gonna do this perfectly, but he's saying, Hey, this is the kind of mindset that you should hold onto.

I don't know if you're familiar with the Enneagram or not, but I think the Enneagram's helpful because the main idea behind it is that we have these nine different types and each type picks up a certain kind of paradigm or mindset in order to feel valued and feel loved. And while those were effective for some time, they don't work in our life holistically. So a people pleaser can't always live as a people pleaser, or a performer can't always be the one who succeeds and wins to gain their value. Because in those times as it goes on, they feel unloved. And that is an old mindset.

The new mindset is that because we are loved by God and loved, by others that we have this sense of peace and freedom that we can operate in.

So my question to you is, what is an old mindset that you're holding onto instead of living in this grace mindset in which you are loved and free to offer love and freedom and kindness into the world, what is it that you're holding onto? That you're clenching so that you can feel valued or you can have your way?

The second thing is this idea of stewardship. So Paul says, just as we are now alive in Christ, Christ is living for God and therefore we are to live for God. Now this concept of living for God is something that is great for a bumper sticker or a t-shirt, but when we think through it, well what does that actually mean?

And I think this is where it comes down to just being good stewards. And good stewards are people who understand that life is a gift. Have a clear understanding of their gifts and then are able to operate out of that with a sense of wanting to offer grace and goodness into the world. And so architects who build buildings with a sense of that they're building buildings as stewards for the gift of life and the goodness of creation.

That's an example when we're faithful in our families as husbands and wives and parents. This is a chance for us to be faithful and to be good stewards of the gift of life that we have been given. When we're kind to our neighbors. Not only those maybe in our neighborhood, but in humanity and in our city, in our area.

That's us being good stewards. And so what's a way that you might take a step as a steward? Because the old mindset, the one that you don't have to live by anymore, is the one in which. The world is wayward and broken and it's hopeless, but because of Christ and his life and death and resurrection and our being united to him, we now have this new life.

We have this grace mindset in which we've been forgiven and set free to reflect God's kingdom in the world. Hope you're able to do that this week and to live into this grace mindset. So good to be with you. Take care.