The Struggle Is Real: Why God’s Grace Changes Everything
It was just a normal Friday night.
November 10th, 2004. I was 14 years old, in the eighth grade. That night, I was home alone, doing my usual routine: watching the dogs, playing Xbox, and living life without a care in the world.
Then my Motorola flip phone buzzed.
It was a friend of mine named Zach. He had been inviting me to church youth group for a few months. I went there for the friends and (if I’m being honest) the girls. But church had become a fun place to hang out, and Zach was someone I looked up to. So I answered.
But this time, Zach wasn’t calling to say what time to meet up.
He was weeping.
“Eric, I don’t want you to go to hell.”
Those words changed something inside me.
Zach wasn’t yelling or judging me. He wasn’t the guy on the street corner with a sandwich board judging me. He was broken. In tears. Genuinely concerned for my soul. And it broke me too. I sat on the stairs of my house and wept. I couldn’t move. I just listened.
He was calling from a Christian youth conference at the Denver Coliseum. The speaker had shared the gospel message—that Jesus came not only to save us from sin, but from hell itself. And when Zach heard it, he thought of me. He invited me to come the next day.
And I said yes.
When You Finally Hear the Gospel
November 11th, 2004. I walked into that packed conference with thousands of other teenagers, not knowing what to expect.
I had heard pieces of the gospel before, but I hadn’t heard it—really heard it—until that night.
I didn’t grow up in church. I didn’t know what “sin” or “grace” really meant. I didn’t have the Christian vocabulary or framework. But what I did know was this: something was broken in me. Something was broken in all of us. And Jesus was the only one who could fix it.
That night, I realized two life-changing truths:
My sin was worse than I ever thought.
But God’s grace was greater than I could ever imagine.
That was the first time I understood what “amazing grace” really meant.
Grace Isn’t Just a Gift—It’s a Game-Changer
In our sermon series, The Struggle is Real But So Is Grace, we’ve been exploring the tension we all live in—the battle between sin and grace. Last week, we looked at what sin is: not just bad behavior, but separation from God. A condition that affects every human heart. Something we can’t fix by trying harder.
And this week, we looked at what happens when sin meets grace.
“But God…”
Ephesians 2 paints a powerful contrast. Paul says:
“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins… But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much…” (Ephesians 2:1–4)
These two words—“But God”—change everything.
Mercy means we don’t get the punishment we deserve. Grace means we receive a gift we didn’t earn. Through Jesus, we are both forgiven and favored. It’s not because we earned it or cleaned ourselves up first. It’s because God loved us first.
The Gift That Must Be Opened
Paul says salvation is:
A gift
Not a reward
Something we receive by faith
Grace is like a birthday gift. The giver has already paid the price. All you have to do is receive it.
But here’s the thing—some of us are still staring at the gift. It’s beautifully wrapped. It’s sitting right in front of us. But we haven’t opened it yet.
God, the ultimate gift-giver, has already done His part. Now the choice is yours: Will you receive it?
Grace Doesn’t Just Save You. It Changes You.
When I got my first car at 17 (a red 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse—thanks, Mom!), everything changed. I had freedom. I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. But with that freedom came responsibility. I had to be more aware, more intentional, more mature.
That’s what grace does.
God’s grace doesn’t just get us out of hell. It transforms how we live. It gives us a new heart, new desires, and a new power to actually follow Jesus. As Paul says in Philippians 2, it’s God working in us both to want and to do His will.
“We are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Grace reshapes your identity. You’re no longer just a person trying to be good—you’re a child of God, living from the inside out.
The Struggle with Sin Isn’t Over—But Grace Wins
So what does all this mean in the day-to-day struggle with sin?
It means this:
Your sin is worse than you think.
But God’s grace is greater than you can imagine.
And that grace sustains you.
Even when you still feel the weight of the struggle. Even when you’ve symbolically “nailed your sin to the cross” but feel like it still haunts you. Grace keeps you in the fight. Grace gives you power to keep going.
And grace is why we can say with confidence:
“I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see.”
One Final Thought: Is the Gift Still on the Table?
If you’ve received God’s grace—then let it transform you. Let it change how you live, how you love, how you see the world.
But if you haven’t yet opened that gift… it’s still sitting there.
God has already paid the price. He’s already offered it to you.
All you have to do is believe—and receive.
If today’s message stirred something in you, don’t ignore it. Maybe now is the time to open the gift.
You don’t need perfect words or a cleaned-up life. You just need to say, “Jesus, I need you. I want you. I believe.”
Grace is waiting.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
—Ephesians 2:8