“Simply Irresistible” (Grace) Jer. 33:1-16; John 6:37-44

                Have you ever felt drawn to something so strongly you couldn’t resist?  Powerful forces are exerted upon us before we are ever born.  When a baby is born, it does not decide that it will come out of the womb.  In fact, babies want to stay in the womb where the baby is comfortable, secure, warm, and safe.  But the baby faces an irresistible force so that it comes out of the womb and into life.  It is a miracle.  Peter likens becoming a believer to being born- “You have been born anew by the Word of God (I Pt. 1:23); Jesus said, “You must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven.”  Being born is not something we control, it is not something we jump through, or climb into, or check off, it is something that happens to us and with us.
                Love also is an irresistible force.  A young man wants to ask a young girl out, but he is shy and scared to death.  But his care for the girl overcomes his shyness and he asks.  He is nervous as can be, but he asks her to marry him.  He doesn’t like standing in front of anyone, but he stands and promises til death do us part out of love.  Love elicits action, and overcomes fear.  The world knows the power of sex, money, and beauty to grab hold of us.  But these are weaker powers compared to the power of love, of faith, and God’s great grace.

                We live in a world that belittles God.  If you listen to the news on TV or the radio, you will see that something is missing- the most powerful force in the universe.  It is like we are ignoring the elephant in the room- walking all around him, climbing over him, forgetting how powerful He is, but He is right there.  The Bible says the main reality in the universe is not human beings.  The world was here before us and will be here hopefully after us.  But God was here before the world and after the world is gone.  Yet we have this view that the world and universe centers around  us- and we leave God out. 

                The most powerful force in the world is God, and God’s most powerful force toward us is His love and grace.  If we understand how powerful God’s grace is, it may help us to see the need to worship Him, and to give Him our love in return.

I. GOD’S IRRESISTABLE GRACE IS PREVENIENT- That is, God’s grace comes before us.  

You remember the John the Baptist came before Jesus to prepare the way for Jesus, to make the highway straight and smooth.  God’s grace does that for us as well.  The Lord said, “While you were in the womb I knew you.”  Psalm 139 says “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely.  You hem me in behind and before.  You knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  God’s grace was at work on us before we were ever born.  We are not Christians in a vacuum.  Last November a group of us went to Greece, and we saw where the first European was baptized- Lydia.  It says that the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.  It was not that she opened her heart, the Lord did.  All of us are here today in part because of her- the first European convert.  We are here because the gospel has been passed down from one generation to another, and even in Chapin.  We are here because 34 years ago a group decided to start a church- I had nothing to do with it.  That is God’s grace- and it goes before us. 

We do not choose God in a vacuum.  God places people and events in our lives so we may respond.  Most of our choices are not in a vacuum either.  If I decide I will choose strawberry ice cream at the ice cream store, it may be because my parents liked strawberry ice cream- or if I’m in a rebellious mode- it may be because they didn’t.  It may be that my genes and taste buds are particularly suited for strawberry ice cream.  The point is we don’t choose in a vacuum.

Jesus said, “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”  I often say that you are not in this church by accident.  This is what I mean.  It is a spiritual thing to come to church.  The Holy Spirit draws people to worship God.  The Holy Spirit opens the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind.  The great line of amazing grace- is that it saved a wretch like me—I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.  God finds us when we are lost.  God quickens us when we are dead to Him.  He opens our blind eyes so we can see Him.  He places people in our lives so we might hear about Him.  He answers the prayers of our ancestors that we might follow Him.

II. GOD’ S IRRESISTABLE GRACE IS POWERFUL-

John Piper said infinity minus 10,000 is what?  It is still infinity, because an infinite number is not diminished by any other number.  The song says, “When we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.”  God’s grace never dies, it not only comes before us, but it comes after us.  It is a powerful magnet that is irresistible.  There is no sin you can commit that can keep you away from God.  The only sin that is unforgivable is refusing to come.  I have seen many times a little boy playing in our preschool, and the daddy would come and say, “It’s time to go. “  The boy will sometimes say, “But I don’t want to leave- no.”  The Father will pick that boy up, and no matter what that little boy grabs, it will not keep him in that room.  When the Lord is grabbing onto us, no matter what we try to hold onto, it will not keep us from our Father. 

Yet we have this idea, that we can hide from God, or we can do something so terrible that God cannot do anything to overcome it.  It is the devil who tries to convince us that we are too addicted to evil, to an evil habit, or to an evil lifestyle that we can’t come.  I remember talking to an 85 year old man who said that he had resisted God all his life, and now it was too late.  I told him it was not too late for eternity is a lot longer than 85 years, and  even at your last breath there is time to change.  He didn’t change, but his wife heard and responded!  The prodigal son is always welcomed back. 

Jesus said all whom the Father gives me will come to me.  Everyone of those that are drawn by God will come.  He will not fail in one.  We cannot resist when He starts to pull us into His love.

III. GOD’S IRRESISTABLE GRACE IS INVINCIBLE-  People do resist God.  God does not make someone a Xpn vs their will.  But His influence is powerful.
Three times in our passage Jesus says he will raise up the ones the Father gives Him.  This parallels Paul’s words that we are dead in our sins and Xp raises us up.
It is as if he were a physician in the ER using the defibulator- the electric paddles to shock our heart back.  The dead person is not able to resist nor do they want to!
God’s defibulator always works.  Jesus says he doesn’t lose any. 

The passage in Jeremiah tells us that there is always hope.  The cities were destroyed, the temple was destroyed.  There was no food.  The young men were killed, the young women and children taken captive.  The Lord says, “In this place I will again have flocks and abundance, safety and hope.”  There are times in your life when you feel like there is no hope, and that your life is meaningless, and that your strength is gone, and that you cannot be what you want to be.  Do not believe the lie that God doesn’t care, or cannot do anything with you.  Hopelessness can be overcome by God’s hope just as sin can be overcome with God’s grace.   We cannot stand up to God’s great power that never fails. 

I just got back from the beach, and I saw so many little children building sand castles.  I loved building sandcastles, and I used to think or dream that I could build a castle strong enough for the ocean to not wash away.  But the castle always did wash away.  A couple of feet of sand will not withstand the mighty strength of the hurricane or the wind-swept tide.   Grace triumphs in the end.  It might be easy to say that it is not fair that my sand castle didn’t last.  But it would be better to marvel at the power of the ocean.

                Kay and I watched the very first Harry Potter movie the other day.  It is a great story about the power of grace and an invitation.  Harry was living under the stairs and was being treated poorly by his aunt and uncle who were raising him.  A letter came for Harry inviting him to attend  a famous school.  Harry’s aunt and uncle tried to hide the letter from him.  Then another letter came.  Then owls began to deliver letters.  Soon hundreds of letters came down the chimney, and hundreds of owl-messengers were perched outside the house.  Harry’s uncle decided they had to run away, and so they went to a stone house on a small island, but even there the invitation followed them so that they could not keep Harry from being who he was meant to be. 

There used to be an old poem called “The Hound of Heaven.”  Just as a blood hound doesn’t let go of its trail, no matter how we try to hide or run away, so God does not let go of his pursuit of us until we say yes. 

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;   I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways   Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.        Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

                  But with unhurrying chase,  And unperturbèd pace,  Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

                  They beat--and a Voice beat  More instant than the Feet--

                "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

God continues to pursue us, and it is the most powerful pursuit, the most powerful force there is.  We should never leave our God’s power, God’s help, God’s answered prayer out of the equation of our lives.  God draws us to Himself and it is an amazing grace that we don’t want or need to resist.

Children’s sermon: Today we’re going to pretend- these paper clips are you and me and all of us- there are different shapes, sizes, colors.  This small magnet is evil, and this big magnet is good.  Sometimes the evil magnet attracts us, and some of our friends to do bad things.  We may feel stuck.  But God’s magnet is more powerful, and can free us from the power of evil.  We call God’s magnet- grace.  God draws us to Himself, and frees us from evil.