We have covered huge topics in this series, and I am wondering how you are doing so far.  So let me ask you a few questions.  After reading scripture, hearing the sermons, and after your real-life experience, do you believe in the power of God’s grace that can radically change your life?  Do you believe you have an enemy trying to steal everything Jesus died to give to you?  Do you believe you are in a spiritual war?  Looking at your life, do you see that your enemy’s lies may have stolen your courage?  Lies that come with regret and guilt. People-pleasing. Self-doubt.   Entitlement.  Have they stolen your courage and left you to walk through life with a spiritual limp, like thinking, ‘you aren’t good enough’?

Today, we are hitting another big lie that can ruin the power of God’s grace in our lives.  It’s such a powerful lie that much of the New Testament was written to destroy this lie.  And what is amazing is, it’s such a powerful lie that many people today continue to believe it, and it continues to damage people.  

Are you ready?  I’m just going to tell you upfront, here is the lie:

I must earn God’s love.  

Do you believe that you must earn God’s love?

Let’s read what scripture says about this.

Galatians 2:15, 21, 3:1-3, 9, 11 We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ… If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily... 3:1 You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough. 2-4 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? 9 …anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure… The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. MSG

Paul here is fuming angry.   When he was with this church, Paul taught about God’s grace. They understood that the only thing that made them right with God was their faith in God.  That’s it, nothing else. Then Paul leaves to start more churches and later discovers that the old school religious leaders in that church started saying that faith wasn’t enough.  They said that to be saved, you needed faith, plus you had to live out the rules and regulations.  Paul was furious and wrote this letter making it unbelievably clear that we are made right with God through faith only.  We are not made right with God through anything we do.  We cannot be made right with God based on our ability to live out the religious rules and regulations.  Paul was so angry because this lie was stealing their freedom and joy in God’s grace.  

Now, just to be clear, Paul wasn’t saying, if you are living in sin, accept Jesus and keep on living in sin.   We like to say that when you accept God’s grace, it’s not the finish line, it’s the starting line to new life.

Paul talked about this.

Ephesians 4:22-24 Throw off your old evil nature - the old you that was a partner in your evil ways - rotten through and through, full of lust and sham. 23 Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. 24 Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature. TLB

Do you see those words ‘constantly changing’?  That means God’s grace gives us the power to change from our old ruts and routines of evil to the way God wants us to live.  That’s for another Sunday.

It is a lie to believe, ‘I must earn God’s love.’  And honestly, it should make us so angry today that people still believe this.   This lie steals people’s freedom and joy in God’s grace.  How? If you believe this lie, chances are, you walk with enormous guilt.  And this guilt is the reason you do things.  For example, answer this: Why do people go to church?  Do they believe they have to go to church or God will punish them?  Or, do they go to church because they want to?  They want to experience God’s grace and be with others to share that grace with others?  Have you experienced that?  Guilt steals our freedom and joy.  

If you believe you must earn God’s love, you work hard at life.  You probably don’t even enjoy the life you are living.  You are grinding through, trying to be good.  And in all your efforts, you always come up short; you're never enough.  Church, Jesus, the Bible, giving, serving, all of those things are work to you; they don’t come naturally.  The belief that you must earn God’s love is wearing you out.  And worse, when something goes wrong in life, because it will, you wrongly believe God is punishing you because you have failed Him.   

If we could wrap this way of living into one word, we would call it ‘religion.’

Chances are, you have thoughts like this, and they are on repeat.  “Nothing can separate me from God’s love, if I don’t mess up.”  “God is love, if I’m good.”  “God’s grace is sufficient, as long as I deserve it.”  “God’s love is freely given, if I follow all the rules.”  “God loves me, until something bad happens, then God is against me or punishing me.”  

Let me ask you, does that sound fun to live like this?  It’s not.   It’s awful.  It’s the reason most of the New Testament was written to destroy this lie.  You see, a lot of people who attend church may have heard that God loves them, but the real question is, are they confident in God’s love for them every day?   Knowing information is different than experiencing love that changes you.  Hearing about God’s love is different than resting in God’s love.

Let’s go deeper to see if we are wrestling with this lie.  20 Question Assessment on Do I believe God’s grace must be earned?  [Source: Bad Thoughts by Judah Smith and Dr. Less Parrott].   Scale from 0 to 7, 0 being never, 7 being often.  Are the following statements true about you?

I feel I am not what I ought to be in God’s eyes.

I feel as if God is disappointed with me.

I feel flawed or blemished inside.

I feel as if I cannot measure up to the person I was created to be.

I’m an embarrassment to God.

I feel like a phony.

I wonder if I’ve ruined my relationship with God.

Actions from my past have diminished my present value.

I feel worthless to God.

I’m ashamed of myself.

I feel I’ve dishonored God.

I need to earn God’s grace in my life.

I’d like to hide parts of me from God.

I keep making the same mistakes with God.

I need to prove I’m worthy of god’s love for me.

I’ve let God down.

God wants to punish me.

I wonder if God really loves me.

I struggle to be honest with God.

I think God is probably ashamed of me.

If you answered with a lot of 4’s, 5’s, or higher, you strongly believe that God’s love must be earned.  And as much as you hear about God’s love, as much as you want it to be true for you, this can weigh heavily on your heart.  It’s like adding a hundred pounds of guilt and fear into a backpack and carrying it around, and it’s wearing you out.

Jesus gave us a parable that directly speaks to this lie.  It’s a parable about one of two brothers.  The younger brother left home in the most disrespectful way.  He demanded his inheritance early.  He takes the money and blows it on parties and prostitutes and loses everything.  Let’s jump into the story to see what happens.

Luke 15:17-20 That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father. MSG

He knows he blew it.   He knows he isn’t worthy.  He’s ashamed.  He knows he doesn’t deserve to be called ‘a son’.  And because of this, he was willing to go home and forfeit being called a ‘son’.  He was willing to be a servant and work for his food.

Let’s stop here.  I want to ask you a question.  Is this you?  Looking into your past, do you feel like you blew it?  Do you feel ashamed?  Do you feel like you aren’t worthy?  And you know you don’t deserve to be called ‘a son’ or ‘daughter’.  Have you concluded that at least you can try to earn God’s love?  Maybe today you are trying to be a good person while at the same time staying away from a relationship with Jesus.  Maybe today you try to do a few religious services to relieve some guilt, and it’s a struggle.  Maybe today you feel miserable because you are going through the motions of life.   You know it’s a good thing to be a Christian, but you aren’t enjoying it.  Church, worship, devotions, giving, and discipleship all seem dumb or stale.   Please hear me, your enemy may have taken you out.  

Jesus told this parable for you.  I want to read the next verse in this story because it's for you.

Luke 15:20-21 When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. MSG

That’s for you.  While you are a long way off, Jesus is looking, waiting, and so excited to see you.  The moment you give your life to Him, he will embrace you and call you ‘son’ or ‘daughter’.  You don’t earn God’s love; you already have it.  He’s just waiting for you to come to your senses.   You aren’t a servant.   

How do we experience God’s grace?  Let’s read what scripture tells us.

Romans 3:23-24, 10:9 Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

…It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God - “Jesus is my Master” - embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!” MSG

To experience God’s grace, we must come to our senses.  That means we must admit we are sinners, we have come up short.  We admit we are utterly incapable of living the glorious life God wants for us.  We admit we cannot earn God’s grace.  We admit we are one hundred percent dependent on God.  And every day we live, we must go back to God for His grace again because grace leaks.

If God’s love for you continues to be hard to wrap your mind around, I understand.  We don’t experience this kind of love and security in life, do we?  We may not have been raised in homes where that love and security were normal.  We may not even have experienced it in church.   And we can wrongly assume that how others have hurt us or let us down is how God will treat us.  And that’s not true.  

I want to give you an analogy of God’s love.  It’s like sitting in front of a fire on a cool summer night.  The longer you sit by the fire, the more you feel its warmth.  And you can’t do a thing to earn it; you just sit by it and enjoy it.  Have you done that?  Have you sat and waited for God to give you His grace like a fire warms you in the cool summer night?  In that moment, scripture says, …it’s a pure gift, He put us in right standing with himself.  That’s when things change.  

I have three questions for you to help process this.  Question 1: How many of you believe and know that God loves you?  Chances are, many of you would say yes to that.  

Question 2: How many of you have been conscious of God's love for you, personally, this past week, and it has changed you?   How?  It has given you courage and helped you relax more.   Chances are, fewer people would say yes to that.

Okay, brace yourself. Question 3: How many have been conscious of God’s disapproval of you this past week?  Chances are, most people would say yes to that.

Do you see it?  There is a battle going on.  Jesus came to tell you, ‘I love you, you don’t have to earn my love, you already have it.’  Your enemy is trying to steal that with the lie, ‘You must earn God’s love.’  And if you believe it, it leads us to walk through life being conscious of God’s disapproval of us.

I want to share a scripture that talks about how long God has loved us.

Ephesians 1:4-6 Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. MSG

Back to the parable I shared earlier.  Jesus tells us the parable to help us understand that we have made wrong assumptions about God.  When we come to our senses, we don’t have to stay in our shame.  We don’t have to live life with God’s disapproval.  When we go home, His love is real, and it can be the foundation of your life.  You can trust it.  You can finally relax.  Wouldn’t that be a better way to live?

Please hear me, you are not a servant, you are a ‘son’, a ‘daughter’.  And if you doubt that, you need to sit by the fire.  This summer, when you sit by the fire and feel how warm it is, I hope it is a reminder of how you can breathe, relax, and enjoy God’s love for you.

Galatians 3:12 The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. MSG

A couple of questions for you to process.

Do you believe that God loves you, period, or do you believe God loves you only if you’re good?  Do you live in guilt and fear, always struggling to be a good person?  Have you been a Christian for a long time and still believe that if something goes wrong, God is punishing you?  Like sitting by a fire, have you allowed God’s love and grace to simply impact you?   Is God’s love and grace the source of how you live your life?