"God is in a good mood."

Those are the words a pastor told me several years ago, as I contemplated why things never seemed to work out, why the cards always seemed stacked against me.

"What?!" I thought.

His words made me nervous. They seemed flippant.

Yet, I later wondered, WHY was a more comfortable with the notion that God MIGHT NOT be happy, that HE might be angry...?

In time, I learned the pastor was right. 

God actually is for us-- and He's pleased with who we are, who He's designed us to be.

Somewhere, we got it wrong.

We started measuring sermons  based on how "convicting" they were- how bad people felt AFTER they left Church! 

Yet the Scripture "flips the script" on this.

The Bible tells us that God IS joy... that the JOY of the Lord is our strength... that to find salvation is to actually enter into the JOY of our Master. 

Oddly enough, we already have a perfect picture of what God is like: Jesus. 

And, even though people attribute things to God that run counter to who God actually is, we find a safe space to understand what He's really like because we've seen Jesus in the flesh.  

• Jesus never caused anyone to be sick- He only healed illness
• Jesus never caused chaos or calamity in someone's life in order to teach them a lesson- He calmed storms
• Jesus never destroyed- He always mended and restored!

And, the Bible tells us that when we see Jesus we see exactly what the Father is like.

The message of grace gets better, though!

Jesus doesn't just show us who the Father is, He actually shows us who WE are!

We like to "window shop" in our day & age. We're always scrolling Facebook, surfing the Internet, and comparing ourselves to others... 

... looking for something to affirm our value and worth.

The Bible tells us, though, that we don't find who we are by looking at externals but by looking at Christ in us. And, when we see Him, the Scripture says He reveals our true identity. We're so much like Him that to see Him is as if you're looking in a mirror!

This means you weren't designed to flub around, living in the rut of guilt + shame + the ghosts-of-whatever-past. You're created for glory!

In this lesson we'll talk about what that means... that you actually carry the presence of something incredible.

After all, didn't Jesus say, "The Kingdom of God is within you"?

By now, you're getting the gravity of grace- it's bigger, better, grander than you imagined possible!

In video 5 we'll talk about everything Jesus has achieved- the full scope of the glory you carry.

I'll show you from Scripture that He's been radically succesful:

• He's forgiven your sins
• He's healed your body
• He's brought spiritual freedom and emotional release to you

... and more!

Of course, because you carry the total salvation that He gives you- and because the substance of the Kingdom itself is within in you... 

... to encounter something amazing, on this side of Heaven, people only need to encounter you!

This means--

• You don’t need to go get reconnected to a source.
• You don’t need to get “re-filled.”
• You are full.

And once you understand that, it makes all the difference in the world.

A lot of people think we constantly fall in and out of favor with God- based on keeping a list of rights and wrongs confessed to Him daily. In effect, we become extremely “sin conscious” rather than “Savior conscious.” 

Here’s the deal: God doesn’t want you dwelling on your sins. 

He’s forgotten all of your past wrongs (imagine that!), He’s decided that He’s not holding future sins against you, either (really, it’s in the Bible).

Once you understand how free you really are, you’re free to be everything you’ve been created- and re-created- to be.

I grew up thinking that God was pleased by rule keeping. The more rules kept, in fact, the better.

Ironically, though, Jesus wasn’t qualified to be a priest under the rules. If you appeal to rule keeping, you exclude Jesus.

On the other hand, if you include Jesus, you automatically exclude the rule-keeping.

Jesus came not only to set you free from the hurts, habits, and hang-ups of the past... but He also came to set you free from performing good deeds in order to maintain your position with your Heavenly Father. 

Bonus Resource!

Order the video course and we'll send you the Redemption paperback in the mail. 

• 358 pages, 5.5" x 8.5"
• A deeper dive study on radical grace and freedom
• Use as a reference for the Grace Basics course or read independently 

Redemption takes video 5 to the next level, highlighting 7 things Jesus provides when He grants us salvation.