Have you ever battled an addiction to…?

• Television?
• Sweets?
• Nicotine?
• Alcohol?
• Gaming?
• Gambling?
• Social media?
• Obscenities?
• Pornography?
• Sex?
• Drama?

How easy was it for you to conquer your addiction? Were you successful? Did you ever have a relapse?

Have you been able to overcome the following in your life? Do you still struggle with any of these issues?

• Impatience?
• Cowardice?
• Lack of self-control?
• Hatred?
• Anxiety?
• Fearfulness?
• Insecurity?
• Hopelessness?
• Laziness?
• Gluttony?
• Selfishness?
• Violence?

How about your goals?

• Did you accomplish the goals for your life that you set when you were young?
• Have you become the person you thought you could become?
• Is your bank account what you thought it would be?
• Have you enjoyed life like you had planned to?
• Have you lost competitions you were sure you would win?
• Are your relationships what you hoped they would be?
• How many times did you achieve your New Year’s Eve goals?

Have you ever felt trapped?

• Stuck in a bad relationship?
• Stuck in a dead-end job?
• Stuck with an abusive neighbor?
• Stuck with a bad resume?
• Stuck in financial crisis?
• Stuck with a disabling health crisis?
• Stuck at a certain weight and you can’t lose it?
• Stuck without the right skills and expertise?

Can you make things happen? Can you…?

• Change the weather?
• Control time?
• Become a movie star?
• Stop yourself from aging?
• Change the course of America by your own efforts?
• Persuade people to do what you want them to do?
• Get your friends and family to think like you do?
• Heal your best friend who is struggling with a disease?

Would you agree with me that, generally speaking, people are powerless to do what they set out to do? Of course, such a statement is not true for all people and in all situations? However, generally speaking, the typical person has deep disappointments and frustrations with their life because they cannot control their circumstances, their friends and family, or even their own heart.

• I bet you think it is an impossibility for you to find a cure for cancer.
• I bet you think it is an impossibility that one day you could become President of the United States.
• I bet you think it is an impossibility that you will become a rich inventor whose business has exploded throughout the world.
• I bet you think you’ll never be an international celebrity.

And yet………

Most people think it is relatively easy for them to live a good enough life to please God.

That’s easy!

God is not a challenge for us. He’s a pushover.

“Oh, I’m a good enough person to make it into heaven! I can talk God into it!”

The Lord God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, is easy to manipulate? The majestic eternal One, the Alpha and the Omega, is easy to please and satisfy? You can change His mind? You can persuade Him with your great oratory skills? The chasm between you and God is small? Oh, the really hard thing in life is to get your girlfriend to go to “bed” with you? To earn a promotion at work? To save enough money to travel overseas? So, pleasing God is a piece of cake because He’s a little slow at picking up on how you are controlling Him?

Let me get this straight. Your life is so out of control. You are powerless to change your circumstances or even your own heart. Yet, you can earn your way into heaven with relative ease?

People…wake up! Think! Pleasing God enough to “let you into heaven” is infinitely harder than any other challenge you will face in life. His minimum standard for you is perfection. He watches everything you do, hears every thing you say, and knows every thought in your heart. He is going to judge you to see whether you are perfect and His decision will result in either you going to heaven or hell.

How are you going to resolve your “God problem”? Remember, you fail most of the time at the things you set your mind to. You know you can’t control anything in life. You have a long history of not accomplishing your goals. Yet, you are going to satisfy the demands for perfection by a holy and righteous God who is evaluating everything you do?

No you aren’t! I can assure you that you have failed to satisfy God’s demands. I can assure you that you are currently falling far short of what God expects of you. I know for a fact you will never be the person in the future that God requires you to be. It isn’t easy pleasing our all-powerful, holy, and righteous God. It is impossible for us mere mortals!

You are doomed!

Unless………

you receive Jesus Christ as your savior. You see, God the Father knows it is impossible for you to please Him and earn your way into heaven. However, He loved you so much that He came up with a plan to erase all of your sin and overcome all of your weakness and failings. You don’t have to earn your way into heaven. You merely have to believe:

That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to die on the cross for all of the sin you have ever committed, are committing, or will commit. The punishment you deserved was placed upon Jesus. Therefore, your sins were washed away and forgiven. Your debt with God was erased. You can now stand before Him holy and righteous because Jesus has made you so.

Christianity is the only faith that makes logical sense! All of the other religions say it is possible for broken, weak, anxious, insecure, and evil men and women like you and I to somehow accomplish the Herculean task of pleasing God enough for Him to permit us to enter into His Kingdom. All of these other religions ask you to place your faith in the impossible – that mere mortals can bridge the gap between God and man by doing enough good in their life. Christianity, on the other hand, says good works are useless. It is our faith in Jesus alone that will save failures like us from eternal death.