Obstacles to Grace

This is about obstacles to grace. God through Jesus has given us his grace to be in a personal relationship with him. But, being the way we are because of sin, we aren’t always able to receive the grace given freely to us by our God.
Sin gets in the way of God’s grace. Sin is all about us doing it by ourselves, thinking that we know how to get right without any help from our creator. Sin is turning our backs on God and “doin’ it our way” as Laverne and Shirley liked to say it.
Our humanness is one our obstacles to receiving God’s precious gift to us. The world continually attacks and bombards us with reasons not to follow the ways of Jesus the Christ. We need this car or that house so that we can be defined as someone who has it all together, to be accepted by the world that surrounds us. When we let this keep us from God’s word and grace that is an obstacle to receiving the precious gift God has for us.
Paul called it “rebellion, refusing to be subject to him. God’s seen as the enemy rather than as our savior. We want to be in control of our lives. Nobody is going to tell us what to do. We want to be “God.”
Remember when our parents would tell us “no” and we’d say “yes” and they’d say “yes you will” and you’d say “no I won’t?” God asks us to say “yes” to his gift of grace and we answer with “no, I’m okay the way I am.” Our independence is an obstacle to God’s gift of grace.
Sin is such a powerful addiction that it’s a miracle that it can be overcome at all. But friends, we don’t have to let sin control how we live. It is powerful but there is something greater than sin.
Let me tell you a story about myself. And some of you may be able to relate to this. I said that sin is an addiction. I call it an addiction because it is so powerful that we don’t see any way that we can get away from its clutches. It’s kind of like my addiction to tobacco was. I smoked my first cigarette when I was a junior in high school. And then I left home and went to college. My parents were no where around to tell me “no.” I couldn’t hear their words admonishing me for smoking. Everyday my addiction got stronger and stronger. For thirty years I let it control my life. I tried to quit “cold turkey” and I’d be successful for a day or so, but then I went right back to where I was before.
I’d talk to others who had been successful in conquering this demon. They said you had to really want to quit before you’d be able to really quit. Doctor Swanson told me the same thing.
So I continued doing what I’d always done until finally I couldn’t take it any more. I went to the one who could really help me and asked for help. You see I tried to do it all by myself and it never worked. It wasn’t until I went to God and asked for his help and believed that He would help that I was successful.
Now it wasn’t only just coming to him in prayer that was the key that released me from this prison I’d put myself into. It was God removing every obstacle I had erected that allowed me to receive his grace. It began with prayer. My faith in God and his ability to help me grew stronger as I spent more time in his word allowing it to speak to my heart.
Obstacles to receiving God’s grace are overcome when we come to God in prayer and hear his words of grace to us. But that’s not the sum total of it. It’s not just prayer and God’s word. We have to come to the realization that we need to change our ways. Our old way of doing life has to “die” so that we can “live” new lives doing it the “right” way, God’s way. It’s kind of like my addiction to tobacco. I had to change what I had been doing and find a new way. What I had been trying time after time wasn’t working. I had to find a new way. And for me it was to stop trying to do it myself and picking up the yoke of Jesus Christ and letting him help me.
Friends, don’t get me wrong. I still struggle with sin. In fact, I feel my sin more today than I did before I asked Jesus to come back into my life. When I continue to do the things that I know I shouldn’t and can’t seem to do the things that Jesus asked me to my heart breaks and I ask God to forgive me and have mercy on my soul.
And then I get up and trust that God will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can endure. But, friends, I am tempted. And I don’t believe my struggle with sin will end until that day I get to go to the other side to be with my savior, Jesus the Christ.
Good friends, you will encounter obstacles to receiving God’s free gift of grace. Just don’t let these obstacles define you and keep you from God’s gift for you, his child. Keep God’s word ever before you. Read it, study it, pray it, contemplate and meditate on it day and night and you will find that you are dying to your old ways and slowly but surely beginning to live more and more as a child of God.
Recognize and identify the obstacles in your life that are hindering you from God’s grace. Open your heart and soul. Allow yourself to be transformed and freed from the power of sin. You may think it’s way hard but my friends, once you commit yourself to it you’ll wonder why it took you so long. You’ll kick yourself for waiting so long to experience this wonderful gift of grace.
Friends, don’t wait another minute. Give yourself completely to the one who is calling you to him. Let him remove the shackles that have you so tied up. God’s grace is sufficient; it’s all we need. His strength comes into its own in our weakness. 2 Cor. 12:9
My friends, God loves you and so do I. Amen.

Transformation of the Environment

Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy, and told him that God didn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but to be bold, loving, and sensible.
As I’ve learned in my life it’s not exactly easy to change how we are. If you have grown up an introvert then it’s almost impossible to transform yourself to be more outgoing.
But, if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking that I’m talking about a total transformation all on your own power. Another lesson I’ve learned is, it’s just not possible for human beings to completely transform themselves by themselves.
Friends, remember Jesus’ words, for humans it’s impossible, but with God anything is possible. Of course he was talking about entering the Kingdom of God receiving eternal life.
All through God’s word we’ll find many instances where the environment was transformed. Some that come to mind are the stories in the Old Testament. What great lessons they are for us. These folks found that they weren’t able to do many things by their own power but when they trusted God and followed his lead wondrous things began to happen.
Just think about God’s church and how it all was made possible. It began with our ancestor, Abram, a wandering Aramean from Ur. God promised that he would be the father of a great nation even though he was childless at the time and when he was told he would have a son he and Sarai were both past childbearing age
But it happened just like God said because they trusted God. That’s how it all started.
Because these folks trusted in a God they’d never seen a great nation was created. Sure they spent some time as slaves in Egypt and then wandered in the wilderness for many years. Eventually they reached the land that God promised them. And their lives were changed. And they changed the environment all around them. They accomplished it all by trusting and relying on God’s power.
How do we tap into this power? Is it possible to transform our environment? We can receive this power. It comes to us through God’s gift of grace.
If we want this power to take hold of our lives we have to make the decision to obey God and believe that God will give us grace.
Two other gifts Paul speaks of are love and self-control. In The Message Petersen translates it as being “sensible.” As we look at the world all around us we might get the idea that there’s not much in the world that makes sense. When we pick up our magazines or watch our TV’s we see so many ads that are all about satisfying our own wants and needs. The world around us seems to be only focused on “me.” Kind of like some of us were when we left home the first time. Mom and Dad aren’t here. I can do anything I want.
Remember what it was like trying to follow the examples of Jesus when you were in college or in the military, or at your first job. Remember the looks, the comments, “You’re a Christian?” But did you ever have one of them come to talk to you when they were in deep trouble somewhere in their lives. It was different then. They trusted you because they’d seen how you conducted your life. And slowly they may have been changed.
Power and self-control will get us pretty far but none of us will achieve our goal without love. Jesus reminds us in His word that it’s all about love. We are to love God with our whole being and then to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.
Friends, Paul said it in other letters that he wrote that nothing works or is successful without love. If there is love, then power and self-control are possible and the environment where you find yourself will be transformed.
You might not be aware of it yet but this weekend has started transforming your environment. The love that has been shown to you and that you have shared has began to change things.
Carry this love home in your heart and start the transformation where God has planted you.
My brothers and sisters, God loves you and so do I.