As I was preparing this talk I was reminded of someone who truly had great obstacles to grace. How many of you know who John Newton was? Well, let me tell you something about him. He was born in the summer of 1725, in the city of London, England. His mother was a devout member of the Dissenters, and she taught the young Newton to pray and filled his mind with the Scriptures. But it was John’s father, an often-absent sea captain, who captured the boy’s imagination. John dreamed of sailing ships and the wide, wild seas, of adventures and mysterious destinations.
Just before John’s 7th birthday his mother became ill and died, leaving her son a virtual orphan. Taken in by distant relatives, the little boy was mocked for his belief in God, discouraged from praying, and ridiculed for his childish faith. Unhappy and lonely, John turned again to his dreams of the sea and, at the age of 11, ran off to become an apprentice on his father’s ship.
If it was a close father-son relationship John desired, he was sadly disappointed, because like his foster family, his father also rejected him. For years, the young fellow worked the Mediterranean on sailing ships, enjoying all the experiences and immoralities offered in each exotic port. He was frequently fired for insubordination, but just as frequently hired by another ship’s master, eager for young seamen and not too particular about their character.
After a short stint in the British Navy, John deserted and ran away to Africa to seek his fortune and new adventures in the African slave trade. Signing on with an unscrupulous slave dealer, he found his situation had declined drastically. In the slave trader’s absences, John was left in the “care” of the man’s vindictive wife, who imprisoned him in her quarters, beat him, and forced him to eat his food off the floor like a dog. John thought death was better than these living conditions, so he escaped and ran into the African forests and eventually made his way to the Atlantic Coast. After lighting signal fires, John was finally spotted by a passing ship’s captain, who sent a small boat to shore to get him.
The captain had hoped the lone man had gold or ivory to offer and was disappointed to only get a penniless runaway. He was put to work as a mate, but the captain soon learned he had made an unwise choice. John became bored with his routine and broke into the ship’s supply of rum and generously shared it with the crew. John drank so much he became disoriented, and fell overboard. One of the ship’s officers either out of pity or spite, saved John from drowning by spearing him in the thigh with a harpoon and reeling him back aboard like a flailing fish.
Painfully wounded and severely disciplined, Newton was demoted to the decks below where it was thought he would be no more trouble.
Somehow, a copy of Thomas a Kempis’ book Imitation of Christ fell into his hands. Reading the book awakened his conscious to the things of God, and he began to recall some of the early lessons learned at his mother’s knee.
As the slave ship neared Scotland, severe winds and weather battered her and she began to take on water. Desperate measures were taken to keep her from sinking and for days every able-bodied man, slave and free, bailed water. Exhausted, frightened, and facing certain death, John Newton had a life-changing experience. The assurance of God’s love and grace flooded his soul. Later he would describe it as a miracle, an amazing manifestation of God’s grace.
Two years after his marvelous conversion, he married Mary Catlett, a devout Christian, and not long after that, John left the sea for good and became a minister.
While he loved to preach and tended his little flock of believers with zealous care, his great joy was writing hymns to be sung at his weekly prayer meetings. He composed over 280 hymns, but the one for which he is most remembered came from his shipboard conversion and carries the message of his personal experience, “Amazing Grace.”
Hello, my name is Benny Anthony, and I attended Gulf Coast Emmaus Walk #67, where I sat at the table of Peter. I worship at NFMUMC where I am the Assistant Pastor.
We all experience obstacles to grace. Maybe none as dramatic as John Newton, but we do have them none-the-less.
I certainly have had my share of those obstacles. I have experienced divorce, alcohol, and drugs. I felt that God certainly couldn’t use me because of my past. Now here are my two favorite words in the Bible…”But God” showed me I could be of use and He continues to use me today. It was all made possible through His wonderful, marvelous, matchless grace!
Maybe you’re sitting there wondering what this man is talking about. What is an obstacle to grace anyway? Well, men, it’s anything that keeps you from enjoying that loving relationship that God offers you through Jesus Christ.
You know the real life of us human beings takes place in the real world…a world that is affected by the consequence of sin.
Sin is nothing but self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness. I like to call it I-trouble.
Sin is all about you know making yourself the center of the universe and the standard for supreme goodness instead of acknowledging God as the rightful center of all creation.
Sin is also alienation. Man, that’s a big word. What does it mean? Well it means that you are foreign, or distant from God.
The Greek word for sin is an archery term that means, “To miss the mark or target.” We can miss the target in any number of ways. We can aim too high, too low; we are off course to the right or to the left.
Sin is anything that causes you to miss the target of God’s will for your life. It is anything that separates us from the love of God and the love of our neighbor.
In a broader sense, sin is anything that diminishes life. Sin can be an abuse of any part of God’s creation—the land, water, or the air, as well as plants, animals, and people. For Christians, anything less than the new creation in Jesus Christ falls short of the biblical vision. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”
There are two primary types of obstacles to grace; those that hinder our relationship with God and those that hinder our relationships with other people.
But through Jesus Christ we can overcome the obstacles to grace.
The cross of Christ is made up of two lines. One of the lines is vertical and the other is horizontal. The vertical line in the cross reminds us that Jesus Christ restores our relationship with God. In Christ we:
Remember our reconciliation—Jesus’ ministry began with the call to repentance, the offer of forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life. Mark 1:14-15 tells us: “After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: ‘Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.’”
Remember our baptism.
Recover our identity as children of God—we center our faith in the cross of Jesus Christ because it stands as the most powerful witness to the central message of the Bible: God created us, God loves us, and God have his only Son that we might have eternal life. Somehow John 3:16 comes to mind here.
Receive the power to walk in the Spirit—The Christian life is possible if we accept the life of Christ as our model and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us in our relationship with God.
A life of grace involves the daily practices of piety, study, and action that we have learned about this weekend.
Resist evil and renounce the forces of the evil one. James 4:7-8 says: “Let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time.”
The horizontal line in the cross reminds us that Jesus Christ restores our relationship with ourselves and with our neighbors. In Christ we:
Come to know and love our true selves; therefore, we are reconciled to ourselves.
Become reconciled to our neighbor; therefore, we can love one another, live in peace, and seek justice together.
Seek spiritual guidance from others in the body of Christ. A spiritual friend is someone who knows the pathways in a relationship with God and the obstacles to grace; he or she walks along with us on our spiritual journey and helps us discern the will of God.
Take part in all the means of grace, including a small group where there is a commitment to accountable discipleship.
That accountability is so very important. That’s why the Weight Watcher’s program is so very successful. It’s based on accountability. People watching out for others. Making sure they don’t slip and fall or should I say eat?
A.A. is another program based on accountability. And we know how successful that is.
Pray for leaders and those in authority. Paul told Timothy “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).
Love our enemies, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, you know the drill. (Luke 6:27-30; Matthew 25:34-40).
Finally gentlemen, the Christian life is a daily decision to take up your cross and follow Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us in Matthew 16:24-26: “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for?” Your life should be a life lived in the shape of the cross, with appropriate attention given to our relationship with God and our relationship with others. There is always more grace in God than there is sin in us. Paul told the Romans: “When it’s sin verses grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end” (Romans 5:20-21). Nothing cam separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Paul again told the Romans: “I am absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:38-39).
In Christ we CAN overcome any obstacle to grace.
Jesus loves you and I do too.
DE COLORES!
