Breaking Down Paper Walls: Embracing God's Transformative Love
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
God does love you as His child, just the way you are, but God loves you too much to leave you the way that you are. And as we're gonna discover today, if necessary God like a good parent is willing to hurt your feelings to get you to move on from the way you are, so that you can become everything you could be and everything you should be and everything God knows that you have the potential to be. [00:00:57]
Excuses we've said are kind of like paper walls from a distance they seem like actual obstacles that keep us from doing things, that keep us from moving forward, that cause us to lose all kinds of opportunities, but they seem so real, they seem so intimidating that again, we just don't go charging through those paper walls that are actually excuses. From a distance again, they seem like actual obstacles. [00:01:46]
Our becauses aren't always the causes. There's a difference between a because and the actual cause. It's an excuse oftentimes that's masquerading as a cause. It's actually just a paper wall. A manufactured cause. And our language with this tips us off as we said last time. And when we catch somebody else, trying to masquerade an excuse as a reason, what do we say? We say, "You're just making stuff up." [00:03:20]
Excuses become bosses that tell us what we can do, what we can't do, what we can try, what we shouldn't try, who we should approach, who we shouldn't approach, the opportunities we should take advantage of, the opportunities that we shouldn't take advantage of. They become... Our excuses become little kings, little tyrants, little lords that we can't actually follow Jesus. [00:07:18]
If you take this idea and follow Jesus through the gospels, you will be shocked at how many times He calls people out in this regard. And He rarely calls them out gently. As strange as it sounds, sometimes Christ comes across very unchristlike, but that's what someone who cares, who genuinely cares about a person actually does. [00:08:32]
At the root, at the root of just about every single excuse, even the ones that have it becauses attached to them, even the ones that we've done such a good job disguising as actual reasons, at the root of every single, just about every single excuse is a fear, something we fear. The fear of embarrassment, the fear of failure. In some cases, the fear of success, the fear of change, the fear of loss, the fear of admission. [00:22:36]
You allowed your fear to blind you to opportunity. You allowed your fear to create an obstacle, that wasn't even an obstacle it was... Your fear it blinded you to the simplest thing you could have done so that when I returned, at least you would have something to show for the money I loaned you to invest on my behalf. You had an opportunity, but now that opportunity is gone. [00:25:24]
Weeping and gnashing of teeth is not an indication of pain and suffering. Weeping and gnashing of teeth is an indication of intense frustration, intense disappointment, intense regret. You're telling me I could have moved through this, and instead, because of my fear, I hung back. You're telling me there was an opportunity I missed. You're telling me there's something I could have accomplished, something I could have done for the world, for my family, for my health and I didn't do it. [00:27:47]
If you're not careful, if I'm not careful, if we're not careful, we can excuse our life away. We can, you can excuse a marriage away. You can excuse your family away. You can excuse your relationship with your kids away. You can excuse your health away. You can excuse your faith away because of something somebody said to you, something somebody pointed out to you and you've been unwilling to press through for whatever reason. [00:29:49]
If you step way back and take the message and the life of Jesus into account, if we're gonna fear something, we should fear missing out on what we could do and should do. You should fear missing out on what you could do and should do for the people and the world around you. If we're gonna fear something, maybe we should fear living behind self-created, self-inflicted, lie infested paper walls. [00:30:37]
The good news is, God loves you just the way you are, regardless of which side of the wall you're on. But God loves you too much to leave you the way you are. So He's gonna call your bluff, He's gonna call your bluff. He's gonna call you out. He's gonna call me out. He's gonna say your reasons aren't reasons. your becauses aren't really the causes, they're just paper walls. [00:31:56]
And the really, really good news is God wants better for you. And we will pick it up right there next time in part three of paper walls, moving beyond the excuses that hold you back. [00:32:38]
Ask a question about this sermon
Excuses we've said are kind of like paper walls from a distance they seem like actual obstacles that keep us from doing things, that keep us from moving forward, that cause us to lose all kinds of opportunities, but they seem so real, they seem so intimidating that again, we just don't go charging through those paper walls that are actually excuses. From a distance again, they seem like actual obstacles. [00:01:46]
Our becauses aren't always the causes. There's a difference between a because and the actual cause. It's an excuse oftentimes that's masquerading as a cause. It's actually just a paper wall. A manufactured cause. And our language with this tips us off as we said last time. And when we catch somebody else, trying to masquerade an excuse as a reason, what do we say? We say, "You're just making stuff up." [00:03:20]
Excuses become bosses that tell us what we can do, what we can't do, what we can try, what we shouldn't try, who we should approach, who we shouldn't approach, the opportunities we should take advantage of, the opportunities that we shouldn't take advantage of. They become... Our excuses become little kings, little tyrants, little lords that we can't actually follow Jesus. [00:07:18]
If you take this idea and follow Jesus through the gospels, you will be shocked at how many times He calls people out in this regard. And He rarely calls them out gently. As strange as it sounds, sometimes Christ comes across very unchristlike, but that's what someone who cares, who genuinely cares about a person actually does. [00:08:32]
At the root, at the root of just about every single excuse, even the ones that have it becauses attached to them, even the ones that we've done such a good job disguising as actual reasons, at the root of every single, just about every single excuse is a fear, something we fear. The fear of embarrassment, the fear of failure. In some cases, the fear of success, the fear of change, the fear of loss, the fear of admission. [00:22:36]
You allowed your fear to blind you to opportunity. You allowed your fear to create an obstacle, that wasn't even an obstacle it was... Your fear it blinded you to the simplest thing you could have done so that when I returned, at least you would have something to show for the money I loaned you to invest on my behalf. You had an opportunity, but now that opportunity is gone. [00:25:24]
Weeping and gnashing of teeth is not an indication of pain and suffering. Weeping and gnashing of teeth is an indication of intense frustration, intense disappointment, intense regret. You're telling me I could have moved through this, and instead, because of my fear, I hung back. You're telling me there was an opportunity I missed. You're telling me there's something I could have accomplished, something I could have done for the world, for my family, for my health and I didn't do it. [00:27:47]
If you're not careful, if I'm not careful, if we're not careful, we can excuse our life away. We can, you can excuse a marriage away. You can excuse your family away. You can excuse your relationship with your kids away. You can excuse your health away. You can excuse your faith away because of something somebody said to you, something somebody pointed out to you and you've been unwilling to press through for whatever reason. [00:29:49]
If you step way back and take the message and the life of Jesus into account, if we're gonna fear something, we should fear missing out on what we could do and should do. You should fear missing out on what you could do and should do for the people and the world around you. If we're gonna fear something, maybe we should fear living behind self-created, self-inflicted, lie infested paper walls. [00:30:37]
The good news is, God loves you just the way you are, regardless of which side of the wall you're on. But God loves you too much to leave you the way you are. So He's gonna call your bluff, He's gonna call your bluff. He's gonna call you out. He's gonna call me out. He's gonna say your reasons aren't reasons. your becauses aren't really the causes, they're just paper walls. [00:31:56]
And the really, really good news is God wants better for you. And we will pick it up right there next time in part three of paper walls, moving beyond the excuses that hold you back. [00:32:38]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Jan 17, 2022. Do you have any questions about it?