Matt Chandler - Grace Upon Grace

Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab those. We will be in John chapter one. We’ll finish today the prologue of John’s Gospel, which is the first 18 verses. If you’re wondering how long we’ll be in this book, if it’s taken us three weeks to get through eighteen verses, I promise you it’ll pick up next weekend. We’re going to look at John the Baptist’s ministry. The week after that, we will look at Jesus calling his disciples. I think that is especially encouraging to my own soul, watching who Jesus hand-selects to be a part of this world-changing mission. It’s not exactly who you think it’s going to be. I mean, you know who they are, but when we look a little bit into their background, you’ll see really who these guys are. And that’s always encouraging to me. Then we’ll be off and running into chapter two. So let me frame today like this: when I was in my undergrad—I don’t need to say it that way; it’s the only degree I have—but for a second, it just felt good to say it, so I’ll leave it at that. We had to read a book by a man named Stephen Covey called «The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.» It’s a global best-seller. How many of you have read that book? You can look around—lots of people have read this book. Now, how many of you bought it, read a little bit of it, and then it just kind of sat on your bookshelf? Look at that—some honesty at church! One of the few places you would expect it. And there you go; I’m so proud of you. It’s a place where you smile and read every word. So in his book, «The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,» Covey writes about a kind of mindset that sets you up for success and a kind of mindset that ensures your failure. He teases those out—not from the Bible; he’s not a Christian—but as a studier of humanity and what actually works. As he wrote about it, maybe you’ll remember this: he discussed a scarcity mentality versus an abundance mentality, or a mentality that says there’s not enough for everybody, so I better get mine, and a mentality that says there’s so much that everyone should be celebrated. You know, we shouldn’t look at others as our enemies. Now, I know this is the 12:30 service—you’re the godliest we’ve got—and so I know you have not experienced this personally, but surely you’ve seen someone who received a compliment. You know people who have heard others get a compliment and then take it upon themselves as their own failures. So if somebody said, «Ah man, you sounded so good today in worship, ” and they told that to a friend of yours while you were standing there, you would translate that as, „Well, I guess I can’t sing, ” right? Or you’re working on a project at work, and the boss comes in and says, „Johnson“ (assuming your name’s not Johnson), „great job on that project, ” and you were on that project, so you interpret that as, „I’m worthless, and I’m going to get fired.“ That’s a scarcity mindset. An abundance mindset would go, „Good job, Johnson! That’s awesome! I’m on that team; we won that, ” right? Those are the differences. Let me let Covey define it like this: „The scarcity mentality is the zero-sum paradigm of life. People with a scarcity mentality have a very difficult time sharing recognition, credit, power, or profit, even with those who helped in production. They also have a very hard time being genuinely happy for the success of other people. On the other hand, the abundance mentality flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. It is the paradigm that there is plenty out there and enough to spare for everybody. It results in sharing prestige, recognition, profits, and decision-making, and it opens possibilities, options, alternatives, and creativity.“ Now, from a non-Christian perspective looking at business, this way of seeing the world is one of the things that leads to great success for people, but this scarcity mindset is one of those things that can actually rot out the possibility of success from under us. What I want to do is take it out of the realm of business and humanity; I want to elevate it to the divine. I want to do this because I think our culture disciples us in a scarcity mentality. I think you and I are being shaped by the world we live in, where other people are seen as a threat. We’d better get what’s ours; we’d better get what we deserve. If anybody else succeeds, that must mean we have lost because they have succeeded. So, it’s bad enough on a human plane, but if you apply a scarcity mentality to how we view, think about, interact with, or consider the God of the universe, you create even bigger problems. Like, if you come to God with a scarcity mentality, you twist His character, belittle His grace, and put a weight on your shoulders that you will never, with all your type-A drive, be able to carry. It will crush you. So, if I get to simplify my message before I preach it, I want you at the end of the day today to understand and grasp just how full of grace and truth Jesus is—that He is an inexhaustible well. We can never come to God with a scarcity mindset because God cannot run out of God. You with me? Okay, let’s look at this together.