Sermon Tone Analysis

Obstacles

What are Obstacles?

Well they are simply Barriers.

Some man made and others naturally occurring.

They force us to take detours, or turn around and go back or sometimes they stop us dead in our tracks just staring, and longing, and wondering if we will ever find what it is we are looking for.

Some examples, yeah some examples would be helpful.

Last week my wife and I went on a four wheeler ride.

We did everything we could to stay off the road.

Our goal was Florenceville Tim Hortons , and then to our friends house next to the dollar store.

We were determined which is why when we came across a barrier in the trail I looked at every possible way to get around.

Alas it was simply to well constructed.

It was like they didn’t want us driving there or something.

Sadly not knowing the local trail system and how others navigated we were left with but two options turn and go home or take the road for a small stretch.

We did the latter, but it was frustrating that someone had put stuff in our way.

Wanna Cross the Saint John River In Hartland?

Sorry Bridge is closed.

Grafton?

Sorry we done closed half that bridge.

And if you want to find a pile of barriers go to a strange city and go down town, you know where all them one way streets are.

Sure as shootin’ I bet you find yourself a detour with about half as many signs as you need.

Sometimes I think the people who designed the down town part of different cities also helped design IKEA.

Easy to get in but danged if you want to get out.

If you go to Halifax to visit the new IKEA store You just follow those arrows man do not, I repeat, do not take the short cuts.

My wife and I split up She was going to finish the store and I was going to take shortcuts to get back to pick up the kids.

Yes they have a babysitting service while you shop.

Well I took the first short cut and that’s where I went wrong, 15 minutes later my wife finds me walking in circles lost in a furniture store, that has maps.

She looked at me and smiled and said why don’t you just come with us honey.

This is not the only time I have had to deal with barriers, in fact sometimes I was the barrier.

Like when we had to shut down a highway in order to safely work at an accident scene.

Those people were ticked.

Lined up for hours while the RCMP decided how they would reroute them because the highway would be shut down all day for their investigation.

It’s not like we could just send them back the way they came, we were on a four lane highway.

But we did.

sending them back to the closest exit and creating a detour on the old highway.

Sorry that had nothing to do with this morning, I just needed to get that off my chest.

OK so what are we talking about?

Oh right Barriers.

One time just recently I babysat barriers in Fredricton, because people were coming to the barriers and driving around them like they didn’t matter.

They did matter.

And it wasn’t like their weren’t other ways around!!!

Actually we started talking about them last week as part of series called Helping the Lost overcome obstacles to faith.

Now before we dive into this there is a some things that life has taught me about Barriers that I think you need to know:

So obviously we are talking barriers today.

Actually we started talking about them last week as part of series called Helping the Lost overcome obstacles to faith.

Now before we dive into this there is a couple things that life has thought me about Obstacles that I think you need to know:

1. Barriers can be a good thing!

like when you are driving and you are sleepy and your subconscious mind is like that ditch seems like a good place to crash for the night.

It is in those moments that that guard rail barrier seems like a good idea.

likewise In our spiritual Journey sometimes God also has set up barriers to help us stay on the right path, or keep us from going somewhere we thought we wanted to go but God knows better.

So barriers can be good.

2. Barriers can also keep us from Good places!

Back when Fredricton and southern NB was flooded, I was talking with a young man who’s girl friend had come up to visit him from NS but couldn’t return home because the highway was closed.

This barrier was created by water and wasn’t trying to help or save this young women it was just keeping her from her home.

Now there were man made barriers in front of the water to keep people from driving through the water.

That barrier was a good in the sense it was keeping people from doing something stupid, but ultimately it was the water keeping that women from going home.

She either had to wait for the water to recede and barriers to be taken down, or find a different route home.

See the difference.

Water was a bad barrier, the road block a good one, but both kept her from going home.

Satan will often throw barriers or obstacles in our way as we journey through this life.

His goal is to cause us to stumble, slip up and if he plays his cards right maybe we would even give up.

He wants us to come up against his barriers and go well that is it I am not going any further.

3. Knowing the difference isn’t always easy

Sometimes as we journey through life it can be hard to know whether the barrier we just came up against is good from God to keep us safe like the guard rail or bad designed by the enemy to hold us back or keep us stuck in an IKEA forever!

Sorry I really need to let that go.

They had some awesome food and candy there.

So let me give you a good rule of thumb as to how to identify a good barrier that needs to be preserved from a bad one that needs tore down.

If the obstacle or barrier is keeping you from drawing closer with God it is a barrier or obstacle that needs to be overcome or tore down, but if it a barrier that is keeping you from sinning, like blockers on your computer, or friends who hold you accountable, well than these are the type of barriers you need to keep them in place.

And for everything else seek God.

Facing a financial obstacle?

Seek God not Mastercard.

You also need to know not every obstacle is God’s way of saying stop.

Sometimes it is, but other times it is something you are going to have to work through or around.

So if it is not a clear cut and dry barrier, you need to Seek God.

Now for this series I hope that it is obvious which type of obstacles or barriers we are talking about.

We are talking about the obstacles that are keeping people from God.

These are not good Obstacles and they need to be torn down like the idols to false gods throughout history.

Last week we talked about the Obstacle of overcoming fear of the light, or rather the change that comes from stepping into the light.

This weak I want to talk to you about the obstacle of...

Foolishness

Have you ever tried to talk to someone about Jesus only to have them say something like, “don’t talk to me about that foolishness”?

Often they will say things like, “it is not logical”, or, “we don’t need that because we have science now”.

As if science somehow has disproven the existence of God, which it has not.

If anything true unbiased science actually supports the idea of a intelligent designer, as it is supposed to be the study of the observable world, and what we can observe points back to it’s creator.

Like an archeologist unearthing a pointed rock with very little detail and accurately determining this was a arrow head shaped by a certain tribe x number of years ago.

But then can look at creation as a who and say this wasn’t created by anyone it just formed itself over time.

Then they tell me what I believe is Illogical.

They look at all the records of Jesus and say He was just a man.

They say the things He did He didn’t do and that they were just stories that have been exaggerated over the years.

Some would say at least He was a good person, but that His death accomplished nothing.

How do you overcome such a barrier?

that is the question isn’t it and to answer that we will look at

How can we tear down the barrier of foolishness?

K.I.S.S.

Me: I love apologetics in fact I love it unapologetically.

In case you don’t get my play on words the word Apologetics comes from the greek word ἀπολογία apologia simply put it means a response or defence.

Commonly used to mean a defence for Christ.

Or making a case for Christ.

I love it and I could stand here for hours, maybe even days unloading on you all the evidences I know for proving the Jesus is who He said He was.

At times I will get sucked into such a debate and rarely has it proven effective in helping someone who is stuck behind the barrier of foolishness come to faith.

Because before they can see the world from that perspective the first thing they need is to believe the simple truth.