OBSTACLES TO ACCEPTING GOD’s GRACE



OBSTACLES TO ACCEPTING GOD’s GRACE

Lay talk 20 minutes

Note to Speaker:

This talk begins by recognizing the reality of prison life and the environment to which the Residents will be returning. We want the Residents to be realistic about the practical problems they face, from within themselves and with others, along with the places and things in that environment. This talk points out the most common influences that are at work in their lives which can become roadblocks to living a Christian life while incarcerated. It also confronts the issue of “the devil made me do it” mindset of some of the Participants trying to avoid the responsibility of their own decision making. It should prepare them to discuss that evil doesn’t have the power to make us do anything.

In speaker’s witness talk, he/she has the option of (a) giving 3 short personal witnesses about each of the three major points of this talk: People, Places, or Things, or (b) one personal witness about one of these same three things.)

Prayer: Kairos Community Prayer, Page 11, FG

Speaker introduces self, telling name, whether lay or clergy, and giving the name of the talk. This information should also be displayed on poster board, flip chart, or written on a chalk board.

I. We have been talking all Weekend about God’s plan for our lives, from forming a Friendship with God and the security that comes from that, to forgiving others and ourselves and accepting His eternal forgiveness for us. And we just prayed, asking for His help to remove those painful memories that can become a hindrance in our daily walk with Christ, so we can become a source of help to a brother/sister to relieve their burden.

II. This is the easy definition of God’s grace:

A. An everlasting, loving relationship with a forgiving God, just like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son/Daughter, or the father on the porch watching his prize rooster being killed. And it is unconditional and we don’t deserve it.

B. The best thing about all of this is that it is free! When was the last time you ever got something this significant and it didn’t cost you anything?

C. That is what the expression “Good News” is all about.

III. But, brothers/sisters, while this grace is a free gift from our Father, it can get messed up when left up to us…messed up by what we call the Obstacles to Grace. What are these obstacles, these roadblocks?

A. People

1. First is us.

a. We can refuse to respond by not accepting the gift of God’s grace.

b. Since relationships improve when we make amends, refusing to make amends to those we have hurt can make our life more difficult. Just remember not to put yourself or others in any further injury or danger.

c. Our refusals can take two forms:

i. Active rebellion

ii. Our failure to make any choice at all. Remember from the Choices talk, not to make a choice is still making a choice.

iii. Yes, we’ve had a good time this Weekend but the Weekend ends today. And there is more to our Kairos journey.

• If we don’t do anything with it after today, that’s passive indifference. And that’s exactly what the world expects us to do.

• St. Paul calls it self-indulgence, meaning that we will do things or make choices in order to either protect ourselves or to satisfy our selfish desires.

• In this environment, all of us can see how seeking protection would be an easy choice. But that’s the rub: it’s the easy choice. Being Christian has never been easy; how easy was it for Jesus to go through what He did, suffer the humiliation, the physical pain, and a public execution in front of His mother?

2. Also under the heading of People are others.

a. The world you live in is a hostile place, filled with people overflowing with negativity.

i. Please know that some of your fellow Residents are not standing in line to hug you out there; they could care less about what you’ve experienced

ii. Some of them will even try to destroy this experience; and if you tell them too much, they will follow you all over the yard, calling you a hypocrite every time you lapse. Remember, we are all broken vessels on a spiritual journey with Christ. We are not perfect people without problems.

iii. Some of your old friends will not like the fact that you are trying to change the way you are living your life. They want you to go back to being like you’ve always been. They will ridicule you and put tremendous pressure on you. But just like Jesus did while he was incarcerated, you must resist. Remember the choice to resist is totally yours. Will it be easy? No.

b. And to make things worse, you may even find some of your Christian brothers/sisters who “act good” when the Kairos team is here or the chaplain is around; otherwise, they continue to act like they always have the rest of the time. How many of you know folks like this?

i. How about “Mechanical Mike/ Mary”: you know, the one

who goes through the right motions of being a Christian with

all the proper moves and sings just the right words to all the

songs. But that’s all there is to him/her

ii. And that’s the difference in being a Christian and being Christian.

iii. How about “Pious Pete/Patti” and his/her twin brother/sister “Holy Joe/Jane”? They can quote scripture with the best of them. I know you’ve seen guys/girls like that because we see them in the outside world, too.

iv. And the best one is “Harry/Hannah the Hypocrite”. He/she acts one way at Kairos or the chaplain’s chapel functions, but back in the compound, he’s/she’s totally opposite, right? These kinds of people will bother you – a lot...maybe even to the point that you will not want to have anything to do with them or Christianity. If you let this happen, you will be the loser!

Let me give you this thought: Let’s pretend a person has a serious illness, like heart disease, and he goes to the very best doctor he can find to get help. When he walks into the crowded Doctor’s office, he looks around and all he can see are sick people; and this annoys him. He doesn’t want to be around all of these sick folks, so he leaves. Now how much sense does that make? But that’s what being around our Christian brothers/sisters is like. Christians are not perfect people, far from it. We all have problems; that’s why we seek out Jesus. He’s the Great Physician, the best doctor in the whole universe!

Here’s another thought for you to think about: you can defeat evil and hypocrisy and pretended holiness by praying for, and yes, with, those other persons rather than criticizing them. This is true; just ask any of your free-world brothers/sisters here this Weekend who have experienced the very same thing as you. There is great power in praying for and with others. Don’t forget all of those all over the world, and those who are in prisons who have been praying for all of us for the last 72 hours, and even before this Weekend started. How powerful has that been to you?

B. The second major area is Places. You know the places that I’m talking about:

1. A certain part of the yard or dining hall that will cause trouble for you.

2. Places that you find drugs, home-made wine, gambling activities and such, places that are full of negative behavior

3. If a place presents a source of sin for you, then you should make the choice to stay away.

Constantly putting yourself in places of great temptation would test the most dedicated Christian.

• Let others notice the change in you; that you’re no longer hanging out in the old places.

• Be prepared for their initial negative reaction; it may be very harsh.

• Be ready to help them when they begin to ask questions of you, because they will when they realize that you are serious about changing your life.

C. Third, seeking to satisfy our selfish desires can be stated in a nicer way by saying that our passive indifference can be influenced by Things, our old habits. What are some of these Things, our old habits?

1. Pornography/Sex

2. Gambling

3. Gossiping

4. Drugs/Alcohol

5. Racism

6. Peer Pressure/Gang Activity

IV. It’s easy to say, but to get rid of these things, these old habits, is very hard. Please think back to the 3rd leg of our 3-legged stool: Christian Action. We need to put our actions behind our words so that we don’t become a Mechanical Mike/Mary, a Pious Pete/Patti, a Holy Joe/Jane, or a Harry/Hannah the Hypocrite.

A. Without that third leg of Action, our stool of Friendship with God cannot stand.

B. We need to replace our old habits with new habits of the faith.

C. Remember the Choices talk on Friday morning? It is a choice that all of us can consciously make.

As said earlier when we talked about Mechanical Mike/Mary, Pious Pete/Patti and Holy Joe/Jane, there is a difference in being a Christian and being Christian.

A. Being a Christian is just a label that the world puts on us.

B. Being Christian is a life-style choice. Think about that.

Being Christian today in a prison can be very costly.

C. While most of us free-worlders can never begin to understand the tremendous stresses of being incarcerated, being Christian is costly on the outside world, too. And guess what? A lot of us fail, too. We have trouble when confronted with some of the obstacles to grace. Some of us still cave in to the world’s seductive things: pornography, peer pressure, gambling, gossiping, arguing and fighting, alcohol/drugs.

D. But, for all of us, both free-world and Residents, a big step in overcoming our personal obstacles is to identify them and face them head-on.

This morning in chapel, we were told that while forgiveness is absolutely necessary for having a Friendship with God, we must also begin the long and painful process of asking God to help us heal some of those ugly old memories. My friends, not to do so, not to try to seek God’s healing can in itself become an obstacle to accepting God’s grace. Please don’t let that happen to you.

We need to face our indifference and our fear of being Christian in this institution. As I said before, this Weekend is not Kairos; this Weekend only opens the door to a lifelong journey, one that will have dark and stormy times in this place. But it is a journey that the Kairos team will journey with you as we will be coming back every month to encourage you to share with each other. And we will try to give you some other tools to help you on this journey, which is the subject of the next talk, Walking in God’s Grace.

In the meantime, the choice is yours, brothers/sisters.

Please bow your heads for 2 minutes of silent meditation. (Speaker walks away)

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