The ministry of
Austin Stone Worship is based in Austin, Texas, but with a dedication to impact and equip the church worldwide with their rich, grounded expressions of worship. Austin Stone Worship's new 11-track album,
This Glorious Grace, was recorded live, and marks the group's seventh recording since The Austin Stone Community Church was planted in 2002.
The musical collective of Austin Stone Worship was forged from a desire to provide resources to worship leaders. The thriving artistic and live music scene in Austin provided the perfect backdrop for these artists to come together and use their skills to display the Gospel and the character of God.
This Glorious Grace was a collaboration between an array of individuals gifted in writing, videography and playing music, recording this project together in May 2015. I had the chance to speak with songwriter Aaron Ivey about "This Glorious Grace."
Please tell me the personal story behind this song.
I co-wrote the song with my friend Brett, who is also a worship leader here at Austin Stone. We've written songs together before. We talk weekly about song ideas and see if they stick.
This particular time when we got together, I was coming off an intense season of burn out. I've been doing ministry full-time since college, which is about 15 years. I have a wife, 4 kids (3 of them are adopted) and I'm the worship pastor at this large church here in Austin. There were a lot of things, all good things, going on, but I didn't know how to rest well.
This writing session happened in the middle of dealing with that burn out. Usually those writing sessions would happen with the anticipation of being excited to share with each other, and this one began with me saying I can't articulate how much I need God right now. I had a need for Jesus to pour out and overwhelm me, change me, heal me and get me out of this burn out. It was really me confessing to him that if God's grace doesn't restore me, then I don't know how to keep doing ministry with any passion and realness.
We didn't start by writing a song. We put down our journals and starting praying. We prayed about how if someone like me who is around Bible studies and ministry all the time struggles with burning out, we were imagining how much a nominal Christian in the margins who may not be plugged into community yet, or an unbeliever, goes through those seasons without feeling God's grace pouring out on their lives. We started by praying for me, and then for our church, and then our city. The whole time we kept praying what ended up being the lyrics of this song: "pour out Your grace, that I would be held by Your perfect embrace." Those lyrics came from praying in desperation to God.
Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song?
Ephesians 1:5-12 (VOICE): He destined us to be adopted as His children through the covenant Jesus the Anointed inaugurated in His sacrificial life. This was His pleasure and His will for us. Ultimately God is the one worthy of praise for showing us His grace; He is merciful and marvelous, freely giving us these gifts in His Beloved. Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace, which He has poured all over us. With all wisdom and insight, He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus, a plan that will climax when the time is right as He returns to create order and unity--both in heaven and on earth--when all things are brought together under the Anointed's royal rule. In Him we stand to inherit even more. As His heirs, we are predestined to play a key role in His unfolding purpose that is energizing everything to conform to His will. As a result, we--the first to place our hope in the Anointed One--will live in a way to bring Him glory and praise.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NKJV): "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Hebrews 4:16 (NLT): So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.
1 John 3:1 (NKJV): "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."
What is the takeaway message?
We finished praying, and it was incredible. I had this melody that was in my head the whole time, which ended up being the melody of the song. The song wasn't something we tried to write, but it came from our dialogue and this real place in my life. It came from the community relationship I have with Brett, and it came from confessing and praying together. That's where the song came from. It has a special place in my heart, because it is my story. Our church has resonated with it as well. It's one of those songs that acknowledges how much you need God, for every breath and for every beat of our hearts.
In Ephesians 1, Paul talks about how we are blessed in the beloved. In Him we have redemption in His blood. We have forgiveness of our trespasses according the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose.
We started thinking about how life and breath is a beautiful picture of God's grace and His mercy. What we deserve as sinful people is the worst punishment, death. But He gives us mercy. He withholds death from us and instead He crashes in with mercy and pours out His lavish grace, which is undeserved. The way we chose to articulate that is that the pulsing of my heart and the moving of my lungs, my breathing, are a measure of His grace. We deserve death without Christ, but grace keeps our hearts beating and our lungs breathing.
It struck me in my moment of need, God knew what I needed. God is working things in such a masterful way, keeping us alive, and He's thinking about the things we aren't even thinking about. What a measure of grace that He would do that for us.
Lyrics:
God I need You, I need You, I need You
Every breath, every pulse of my heart
Christ have mercy, have mercy, let mercy abound
I need You, I need You now
God pour out Your grace, glorious grace
That I would be held by Your perfect embrace
I am undeserving, You are high and worthy
All of my praise for this glorious grace
God I'm longing, I'm longing to see You
In Your presence all darkness will fade
Shine Your glory, Your glory, let glory surround
I'm longing to see You now
God Your grace like rising seas
Has swallowed death and sin in me
God Your grace like rising seas
Has swallowed death and sin in me
Glory to my God who saves
Jesus Christ, my glorious grace
Glory to my God who saves
Jesus Christ, my glorious grace
God I worship, I worship, I worship You
For Your glory, my all in all
You are worthy, You're worthy, You're worthy
I worship, I worship You
God I need You, I need You now
With this song and album, Austin Stone Worship is offering a great example of how you can write and sing lyrics that are unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and reach the lost with transparent confessions of faith. Every thought and lyric in this song and this album is rooted in Scripture, which I admire. If you've been desperately waiting for a fresh filling of Christ-focused catchy songs about relying completely on God's glorious grace, then don't miss out on this worshipful album. This song does an excellent job of explaining what grace is all about. My pastor uses the acronym "God's Riches at Christ's Expense" to define grace.
Even once we are saved, we sometimes beat ourselves up about failure and feel unworthy of God's love. That's the point: we aren't worthy. We can't earn grace. It is a gift of unmerited favor from God for His children. Scripture tells us, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8). In our fallen and sinful tendencies, He still thinks of us as His children, His sons and His daughters, if we've accepted Jesus as our substitute and Savior. God views us "white as snow" through the blood of His Son instead of in our dirty states.
When you sing this song, the devotional thought we should all be thinking is whether we are submitting our lives to the Truth or just singing the words. Martin Luther is credited for saying, "We need to hear the Gospel every day because we forget it every day." Remember this Scripture passage: "God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it" (Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT). God wants us to boldly approach the Throne of mercy and grace to receive and obtain what we need from Him. When we acknowledge our identity in Christ through this song, our burdens are removed. I can't get enough of the beautifully poetic and powerful expressions of faith in this song. Join in and sing along: "
I am undeserving, You are high and worthy, all of my praise for this glorious grace." Amen to that!
Watch the music video below.
