Why Would Anyone Reject God's Grace?
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Why Wouldn’t we receive God’s Grace?
Why Wouldn’t we receive God’s Grace?
Pride: “I don’t need a Savior, I’m good.”
Like a person stranded in the middle of an ocean, with no land for hundreds of miles, we are desperately in need of a Rescuer. If a person came with a lifeboat for us and said, “I’m here to save you, grab my hand,” only a prideful fool would reject the offer.
But that’s what we do when we have pride towards God, and reject his offer of grace.
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Guilt/Shame: “I’ve messed up too much, I’m a wreck, I could never be fixed.”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Dislike the Giver:
We naturally reject gifts from those we don’t like.
Maybe you have a bad impression of who God is.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
If you had issues with dad, this is gonna be hard for you.
Dad left.
Dad was passive
Dad was angry
Dad was selfish
Dad didn’t get along with you.
Dad wasn’t in the picture
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
There is hope for you. God is different:
He is always there.
He is forgiving.
Full of love.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Love sin too much: “I can’t possibly give this up.” Partying, sex, myself, my dreams, my plans, my ways, my control.
You will never find what you are looking for in your sin.
Like a horse chasing a carrot hanging from a stick held out in front of its nose, your sin will never satisfy you in the way you desire it too.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - C.S. Lewis
You gain everything when you turn from your sin, trust in Jesus and receive His gift of Grace. You loose everything by holding on to sin.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
My heart is that every person here is freed from bondage. And that freedom comes from Christ Jesus.
Unbelief: “That would be great if it was true, I just don’t believe it.”
We are glad you are here.
I had a lot of intellectual questions myself. And I believe that if you have honest questions, they are worthy of honest answers. We would love to help you get those answers you are looking for.
Potential Questions:
Reconciling God and Evolution.
Is the Bible really God’s Word, or just written by man?
How could a good God allow bad things to happen? Pain and brokenness.
Is God anti-gay?
What about other religions?
While we can’t answer all those questions in one night, I’d like to present you with an invitation and 2 questions:
I want to invite you to do a future investigation the faith, where we can explore some of the answers to questions, and look at the life of Jesus. Discovery Group.
If God really does love us, would he not communicate with us to show us how to have a relationship with him?
Would he not show us answers to life’s biggest questions?
What is my purpose?
How am I to live?
What will give me real joy and peace?
What happens after I die?
What better way than to give us a book? That’s exactly what the Bible is.
“But how do you know this book is really from God and not from man?” you ask.
God thought you might ask that question, and he wants us to use our brains. So, God gave us logical and clear signs that it truely is Him who is speaking to us through the Bible:
400 years before Christ was born, God fortold the future about Christ who was to come.
Where he would be born.
Where he would come from.
What would happen to him.
What he would do.
How he would die.
God fulfilled those prophecies in Jesus Christ.
To make sure that we would really know for sure that it was Him, he did miracles. Undeniable signs.
Healing the blind
Healing the crippled.
Raising the dead.
He died...
But didn’t stay dead.
He came back to life.
appeared to more than 500 witnesses.