How God’s Grace Transforms You: The G.R.A.C.E. Framework for Lasting Change

The Starting Point of Change

What if the reason you're struggling to change isn't because you aren't trying hard enough? Hey, it's likely you've been trying to change from the wrong starting point. Because God isn't asking you to become better so that He can welcome you.

His grace welcomes you first and then teaches you how to become. And today I'm going to walk through a framework of what that actually looks like. Hey everyone, welcome to the Biblical Film Room, a place where we slow down, reflect, and let scripture examine our lives so we can grow in truth, walk in freedom, and live out our identity in Christ.

Hey this is Michael Jerome, your host. Thank you for joining the show. I appreciate it. Last episode we talked about one of the biggest mistakes I believe many sincere Christians make.

Belonging Before Becoming

We try to become before we understand that we belong. We've talked about how easy it is to confuse doing with being, doing for God instead of being with God, trying to prove our worth instead of receiving our identity, trying to earn belonging instead of living from the belonging God has already offered us.

But all of that raises an important question. If performance isn't the answer, then what actually creates transformation? I would say a relational understanding of G-R-A-C-E, grace.

I discovered this in the middle of my own faith reconstruction. After my marriage failed, after my faith was shaken, and after I experienced disappointment and disillusion in the church, I had to go back to scripture and ask, who is God really? And who am I really? And what does sustain transformation look like? And what I discovered was this GRACE framework along the way.

Hey, before we get into the show, I have a proposal for you. Through a Space of Grace Counseling, I offer a complimentary 30 minute discovery call to talk about your story and whether biblical counseling is a good fit for your situation. There's no obligation, just a safe space to begin. You'll find the scheduling link in the show notes. Now back to the show.

The G.R.A.C.E. Framework Explained

Now let's get into the grace framework, starting with God. G, God loves you just as you are. Period. And you may think, hey, I I know this, but me encourage you to go deeper.

Remember when Jesus told Peter in Luke chapter 5 to put out into deep waters and let down the nets for a catch? Luke 5, verse 4. Then Peter says, Master. We have been working hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.

And it says when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Hey, I want to challenge you to go deep with me today. Deeper than you've ever gone as we discuss G R A C E.

Let go of your experience, your knowledge, your preconceived notions, your skepticism, and open up your heart and mind for a catch, a deeper grasp, and a deeper understanding of this G-R-A-C-E.

G: God Loves You Just as You Are

God loves you just as you are. Period. Scripture tells us in Romans 5, verse 6, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. He didn't wait for us to become worthy before he moved towards us.

And one important thing to notice about God, Jesus, is this He is so intentional about moving towards people who are unworthy and unlovable. And there are really two examples of him demonstrating proximity when distance and isolation was the protocol of the day towards certain people.

I hope you like biblical narrative. I love biblical stories. They're they're great. I'm gonna touch on two stories, both of them from the book of Mark, that shows God moving towards us.

Mark chapter one, verse forty, there's a man with leprosy who came to Jesus, came to him and says, and begged him on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the man and said, I am willing, be clean.

Here's this leprous, contagious, unclean, unsightly person against the law to be near him, not to mention to touch him. And Jesus says, The Bible says he reached out his hand and touched the man and said, I am willing, be clean. God loves us just the way we are. Period.

Another story, Mark chapter five. The demon-possessed man. He was repulsive to people. They isolated him from society. Erratic behavior. He walked around naked. He didn't have any clothes on. Social outcast and dangerous. So they bound him in chains. He cut himself and cried out. He was a menace and a nuisance to society.

When Jesus got out of the boat, the man with the impure spirit came to meet him. At first, he thought Jesus was torturing him because Jesus was commanding the evil spirit to come out of him. And then the atmosphere of the entire exchange shifted with one deeply personal and disarming question.

Says, then Jesus asked him, What is your name? A deeply personal, intimate, and calming thing in that culture. Basically wanting to know who he was, and it was the beginning of restoring dignity to this man. God loves you and me just the way we are. Period.

In both situations, these individuals approach Jesus when no one else wanted to be around them or could be around them. Why? Why did these guys feel comfortable enough in approaching Jesus? Well, I believe it's because they sensed that Jesus accepted and valued them just as they were.

A broken, they smelled offensive, socially awkward, unattractive, poor, dismissed, written off, ridiculed, misjudged, and greatly misunderstood men. And Jesus stood there and engaged both men authentically when no one else would.

And here's a film room insight for you. Your acceptance by Christ isn't dependent on your worthiness, but on his willingness. And that's great news.

So if you're thinking or have the tendency to think, well, once I I get my marriage together, once I stop doing this or that, once I get my anger under control, once I get my faith together and start being a little bit more consistent, then I'll come back to God. Then he'll accept me.

No, no, no. You don't understand fully that the G in grace begins with a God who moves towards us before we ever know how to move towards him. Peter in the story of Luke five says, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. But Grace says, No, no, no.

You're going to become something because you already belong to me. I have chosen you. So don't be afraid. From now on, you will be a fisher of men. So the film room insight, the G and the G R A C E framework says, Come as you are. Because God loves you enough to meet you there and cares for you too much to leave you there.

R: Refuses to Leave You There

Which brings me to the R refuses. Grace refuses to leave you there. But here's where we sometimes misunderstand grace. Grace isn't God doesn't care what I do. Grace is God cares deeply about who I'm becoming. He's got the future you in mind.

Mark 1, Jesus says to the leper, hey, go to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded as a testimony to your healing. In Mark 5, Jesus tells the demoniac, Go home to your own people and tell them what God has done for you.

Man, God wants us to grow for our good and to his glory. His words of kindness and hope and his deeds of renewal and growth opens the possibilities on the other side of change. Yes. And maybe you've learned to shut down when you're hurt. Or you've learned to control people because you don't trust them.

Maybe you've learned to people please because you're afraid of rejection, or you've learned to withdraw because vulnerability doesn't feel safe. And perhaps you've carried resentment for years because you don't know what to do with the pain.

If any of those scenarios is the case, listen, listen. Grace doesn't shame you for those patterns. Grace invites you to let God transform them. And so another film room takeaway. Although grace doesn't excuse dysfunction, it creates the safety necessary to confront it. Does that make sense?

A: Affirms Your True Identity

And that leads us to the A affirms. Grace affirms your true identity in Him. And so if belonging comes before becoming, then we need to know who do I belong to and what does he say about me? And we talked about this a little bit in episode two.

It's so easy to allow other people or circumstances define us, right? You know, family, church, marriage, divorce, failure, success, trauma, rejection. Some of you have spent years allowing what happened to you to tell you who you are.

But you know what? You need to agree with God and break agreement with the lies of the subconscious voice. I mean, you are not your divorce, your failure, your worst decision, your parents or someone else's rejection of you. Your church's your church disappointment, someone else's opinion, your past, your identity is ultimately grounded in Christ.

Jesus affirms the value and worth of both the leper and the demon-possessed man. Particularly in the case of the demoniac, you see affirmed and restored value in Mark 5, verse 15, it says that the man was sitting there dressed and in his right mind.

I mean, dress, clothing, I and true identity, restored dignity, right mind. He is now thinking clearly because he knows who he is, loved, accepted, valued by the only one whose opinion of him really matters. Grace doesn't just forgive your past. Grace helps you see yourself through God's eyes.

Which leads me to another film room insight. Before God changes what you do, he often begins by changing what you believe about who you are. So let me say that again. Before God changes what you do, he often begins by changing what you believe about who you are. And that is life-giving and restorative.

C: Commit Your Ways to His Truth

Now we're going to move to the c Commit your ways to his truth. Commit your ways to his truth. Here we shift from what God does to our response. This is where the transformation happens. Our response to what he has already done.

Mark chapter 145, it says he went out and began to speak freely, spreading the news. And in Mark chapter 5, 20, the demoniac, it says, so the man went away and began to tell in the decopolis how much Jesus had done for him. These men didn't simply encounter another religious person. They encountered Jesus.

Hey, quite frankly, their interactions with the religious of the day didn't bring about any positive change at all. Only hurt, isolation, scoffing, misunderstanding, and a lack of empathy and compassion. Do you see the results of God's GRA CE? It isn't passive. It produces a response. Now check this out.

Once I know God loves me, God is transforming me, and God has established my identity, I now have a reason to respond. Isn't that beautiful? I mean, once I know that God loves me and God is transforming me, and He has established my identity. I now have a reason to respond.

Now think about it from a sports perspective. When you watch a game film, when you watch game film, eventually you have to do something with what you see. Because you can't keep watching the same tape and continue making the same mistakes. And that was me.

Reading the Bible, praying, leading Bible studies, song service, but stuck in the same patterns that produce dead religion. And dead religion is hard to maintain. But during my six months in my apartment with my Bible and solitude and chess game, I learned something, another valuable lesson that I'll pass on here.

Scripture shows you the truth. Grace gives you the security to face the truth, and then you make a decision. So let me ask you what decision do you need to make today, my friend? Maybe that means establishing a boundary, confessing a sin or wrong, asking for forgiveness, seeking counseling.

Ending an unhealthy relationship, changing a destructive habit, confronting resentment, learning to communicate differently, surrendering something you've been controlling or has been controlling you. Hey, we don't commit our lives to truth, so God will love us. We commit our lives to truth because he already does. That is the difference between performance and transformation.

E: Empowered by the Holy Spirit

And now the E, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Okay, but how do I actually change? I know about the Holy Spirit and all that. How do I actually change? Well, the Holy Spirit empowers transformation. And I think one of the greatest verses on this is 2 Corinthians 3, verse 17. You got to check this out.

It says, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That is an amazing Bible verse. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And it's not only freedom from something, but it's also freedom for something. Not just freedom from, but freedom for. Freedom for growth, for change, for new.

Look, the Holy Spirit is a person. He helps us. He helps us grow. Christian growth isn't try harder. It's actually surrender deeper. Surrender deeper. This is what I missed. Because surrender deeper didn't make sense to me. It was scary. I always thought surrender meant, well, I'm gonna lose some things. I guess I'll just lose.

And I want to give you right now the Luke 5 challenge that Jesus gave Peter, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. I want to challenge you to put out. You gotta put out, my brother. You gotta go into deep waters, my sister. How does this happen? You may be wondering. How do I do this?

You don't do, you become, but before you become, you must first belong. Surrender deeper is about obeying God without knowing the outcome. It's about the pursuit of holiness through encountering the Holy One and the Spirit empowers this. He's the engine.

Participating in Your Own Transformation

So we still have a responsibility, yeah. I mean, we still pursue scripture and prayer and community. We still pursue accountability and confession and obedience and relationships, wise counsel. But we're not doing those things to earn God's love or someone else's approval. We're participating in what God is already doing.

So another film room insight. The Christian life isn't God asking you to change yourself. It's God inviting you to participate in the transformation He's already begun in you.

And so now I want to bring the entire grace framework together. G's God. God loves you as you are. So he initiates. R refuses. He refuses to leave you there. He transforms. A affirms. He affirms your true identity in him. He establishes. C commit. You commit your ways to his truth. You respond. And then E. Empowered. You are empowered by the Spirit. You participate in transformation. that's good stuff. That's good stuff.

This is how the grace framework moves. Here's the movement. G-R-A is primarily about what God does. CE is about how we respond. And so grace starts with God. And grace creates belonging. And belonging creates security. Security creates freedom. Freedom allows us to face the truth honestly. And truth, empowered by the Spirit, sets us free through producing transformation.

A Personal Testimony of Redemption

That's my story, y'all. That's my testimony. When I look back at those six months alone with scripture, prayer, fasting, and reflection in a chess game, I realize now that God wasn't simply teaching me more Bible. He was rebuilding my understanding of who He is and who I am. Hey, I wanted God to restore my marriage. Really, I did. I wanted God to change my circumstances. And yet He transformed me.

Folks, my marriage wasn't restored, but I was made new. My circumstances in the aftermath of my divorce didn't immediately change. I was still broke. But I did. I changed. I was a different person, different mindset, like the demon possessed man in Mark chapter five.

My faith crisis didn't end because I found easy answers. My faith was reconstructed because I encountered God in Scripture and began to understand grace differently. Hey God didn't erase my story. Grace redeemed what I thought was the end of my story. The man speaking to you today isn't the man who entered that six month season. G R A C E change me.

Who's this framework for? This framework is for the person carrying family of origin wounds. It's for the person who has been deeply hurt by the church. It's for the person whose marriage or romantic relationship ended and left them questioning themselves. It's for the person who loves God but doesn't feel close to Him at all.

It's for the person who knows scripture but still feels stuck is for the person who has spent years performing but has never learned how to rest in belonging. Hey, I hope you know that you are truly welcome by the Lord.

Hey, before we continue the show, I'm thinking at this point, maybe what you need is a safe place to slow down, understand your story, and begin taking intentional steps towards grace and healing. That's what I want to offer you through a space of grace counseling.

So I want to invite you to schedule a complimentary 30-minute discovery call with me and explore whether biblical counseling is the right fit for you. You'll find the link to schedule in the show notes. Now back to the show.

Hey, I want to invite you at this time to join me in a locker room prayer, if that's okay. Father, thank you for your grace and for welcoming us as we are. Remind us that we don't have to earn your love. Help us to live from our identity in Christ. Face the truth and trust your spirit to transform us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Hey, I believe that we have established the fact that you don't have to become better to come to God. Come to God and let his grace teach you how to become all that he purposed for you. We see these results in the lives of the leper and the demon-possessed man and Peter. But hey, here's the question we have to ask next.

If God loves us, and if grace welcomes us, and if the Holy Spirit empowers transformation, why do so many people who genuinely love God remain stuck in the same patterns for years? You know, there's a there's a problem underneath the problem. And I believe it's one of the biggest things nobody's talking about. Yeah, no one's talking about it.

And that's where we're going next time in the biblical film room. We're gonna go there. We're going to examine the tape on the problem nobody's talking about. So hit that subscribe button so that you don't miss our next episode. And please drop a comment in the chat. I would love to hear from you. And as always, share the podcast. It just might change someone's spiritual direction.

Hey, thank you for joining me today. I sincerely mean it. I'll see you next time in the biblical film room where God's word becomes the replay that changes your life. So until then, watch the film, renew your mind, and live the truth. Godspeed. We'll see you soon.

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