Grace for the Race

The Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of Justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (Isaiah 30:19)

The Bible is full of stories of those who wished they had waited on the Lord. Abraham and Sarah got impatient and tried to fulfill God’s promise for a son according to their own time table. Moses got impatient and tried to fulfill God’s promise to deliver His people from bondage in Egypt in his way and in his timing. The entire Israelite nation grew increasingly impatient regarding God’s promise of inheriting the Promised Land, and rumbled, stumbled, and grumbled for 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Saul, the first king of Israel, suffered dearly for his impatience and hastiness time and time again, refusing to wait on the Lord’s timing. And, like the apostle Peter, who was impetuously impatient by nature, the same is true for all of us, from time to time. 

Each day, we are always faced with two choices in life – one it to wait on the Lord in our assigned place . . .  or to forge ahead at our own pace. The first is an example of faithfulness to follow wherever and whenever God leads. The second is an example of unbelief. Now, when the plans we have made for the day are disrupted, the unbelief of impatience will cause us to respond in one of two ways: either we will give up and abandon the path God has set before us; or we will make impulsive counter moves against the obstacles standing in our way.

Now the key that unlocks the door leading to waiting on the Lord is to keep our focus on Jesus, walking by faith and not by sight. To be sure, this is an ongoing battle deep within the heart. But it is a battle that can be won if we will fight it in the strength of the Almighty. God’s plans are better than our plans. God’s timing is better than our timing. That is why we must stay anchored in the Word of God. In the Word we will find the weapon of wisdom we need to live a life according to God’s will rather than our own will.

So, regardless of where this finds you today, keep in view that there is indeed something worse than the challenge and difficulty of waiting on the Lord, as painful as that can be at times, and that is . . . wishing you had! Remember, as the prophet Isaiah said, “Blessed are all who wait for him.”

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36)

Everyone wants to live a life of success. No one gets out of bed in the morning with the goal of being a failure. So, how do we live a successful life? We live for what we were made to live for and His name is Jesus Christ.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to live for their own glory rather than the glory of God, they denied their own humanity. You see, they were made to live for the glory of God. Only by living for God’s glory would they be fully human. God created us for the purpose of the glory of His beloved Son Jesus. Only when we are living for the expansion of the Kingdom of God are we living lives of meaning, purpose, significance, and success. Only when we are doing all things for the glory of God are we doing what we were designed by God to do with every breath we take and every beat of our heart.

Another word for this is ‘transcendence.’ Transcendent living is living for the One who created you. Each day we find ourselves in the middle of the battle between two kingdoms – the kingdom of the self and the Kingdom of the Savior. Only when we are living our lives and investing our time, our talent, and our treasure for the Kingdom of Christ are we living successful lives.

So, for what have you been living for lately? Is Jesus sitting on the throne of your life or are you sitting on it? We are never more fully alive then when we are living for the glory of God in all we think, do, say, and desire. Now we will never do this perfectly on this side of the grave. But when this is the deepest desire of our heart even when we mess things up, we can be assured we have found the secret to successful living – living for the Savior rather than the self. To be sure, this is a constant battle deep within the human heart. But it’s worth the fight.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

When I was growing up, there was a cartoon entitled, Dennis the Menace. It was one of my favorites because I always thought I was a lot like Dennis. So did my mom and my neighbors. Dennis was always getting into mischief. He was a constant thorn in the side of his neighbor Mr. Wilson with both his questions and his antics. In one episode Dennis was holding up a handful of flowers and asked Mr. Wilson, “How can anything so pretty and clean come out of dirt?” As you might be thinking, this question Dennis asked could be asked by all of us about mankind.

If we are being honest with ourselves, we must admit we have all felt like the man with leprosy who came and knelt before Jesus saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2). We, by sinful nature, are all lepers. And yet, our Lord Jesus is ready, willing, and able to make us clean. It starts when we trust in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. But that is only the beginning. For the rest of our lives, God is at work cleaning us up from the inside out and one day, when we breathe our last, we will be made perfect.

Unlike the religious leaders in Israel, Jesus did not withdraw from the leper. He did not withdraw from the dirty, downcast, and defiled sinners. He did not withdraw from the marginalized and the vilified. He loved them and He ministered to them. Now in this story, Jesus could have simply healed this man without saying a word or doing anything. But notice what happens after this man asked Jesus to clean him. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man, “I am willing, be clean” (Matthew 8:3). The religious leaders could not get far enough away from this unclean man. But Jesus meets him in his place of deep need with the touch of love.

Remember, like the flowers Dennis held up wondering how such beauty could come from dirt, we can at times, wonder how we will ever be conformed into the beautiful image of Christ, as we stir up the dirt in our lives through what we think do, say, and desire. Fear not! Jesus is at work in you removing the dirt in your life. Now this does not happen in a day, but rather, daily. And Jesus will not stop short of removing every speck of dirt from your life, making you whiter than snow one day soon and taking you from dust to glory.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Do not despise these small beginnings. (Zechariah 4:10)

We live in a world that firmly believes “Bigger is Better!” A bigger house. A bigger car. A bigger boat. A bigger bank account. A bigger bank account. The bigger the better. Supersize it all! Yet, our God is in the business of using small things. God used a small lunch from a small boy on a hillside and Jesus multiplies it to feed thousands of people that day. God used five small smooth stones in the hands of a small shepherd boy to defeat the giant Goliath. 

Did you ever wonder why God uses small things? It is so “no flesh should glory in His presence.” When God uses small things, there can only be one reason for victory – it was God who did it. Do you remember what God did to Gideon’s army before he went off to fight the Philistines? Facing 135,000 Philistine warriors, God reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 all the way down to the small size of 300. And when Gideon led his 300 into battle against the Philistine army and won the day, there was no doubt as to who was the One responsible for the victory – God!

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)

With just a small group of twelve disciples, Jesus trained them and sent them out and they turned the world upside down. So, wherever this finds you today, regardless of what you have, bring it to Jesus and offer it up in faithful service to Him. Whatever looks small to you – your knowledge, your possessions, your status, your influence, your finances, your place of service – whatever you have that seems small to you can be used by God in a very BIG way for His glory and the good of others.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11)

In life, we all must deal with storms that can send us swirling into the depths of depression . . . if we let it. Depression is one of the enemies’ greatest weapons against us. It can steal our joy and rob our peace. It can cause us to grow weary in our well-doing until we find ourselves doing very little of nothing at all. Once depression has its grip on us, it will cloud our vision and dull our senses in our service of our Lord. Depression will cause us to feel alone and isolated from the rest of the world. So, how do we defeat depression?

First, we must not buy into the common misunderstanding that depression is a natural response to the difficulties we face in life. This is the wisdom of the world, not the wisdom of the Word. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that we will face trials of many kinds on this side of the grave. But we are not to get depressed over them. We are to be delivered through each trial because Jesus has already overcome the world. We have all we need to defeat depression because we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we can win the war over our feelings and defeat depression.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Disappointments will come and go. But we can resist the devil who wants us to descend into discouragement that ultimately leads to depression. Remember, greater is the power that is at work in you than any power that comes up against you. Resist the devil who wants to oppress you and you will not give him a foothold to depress you. Go on the offensive. Be proactive. When the devil comes knocking, do not let him in.

Oh, one final point. As you resist the devil, respond to Jesus who has promised to never leave nor forsake you. Keeping Jesus front and center in your life and counting your blessings each day, is the key to defeating depression.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.(Isaiah 61:3)

Jesus promised trials in the life for all of His disciples, regardless of the length of time we have been walking with Him. And because we know God does not make mistakes, we can be sure that every single trial we have to endure will ultimately become a treasure to us. As it has been wisely said, “What we lose in the fire, we will gain in the ashes.”

Our Lord Jesus is way too wise to every be wrong and far more faithful to ever be false. He is always at work within us and using every means necessary to conform us more and more into His image and likeness. Now the devil likes to whisper in our ears, “God does not really care for you allowing you to face such difficulties.” But we must always remember that the devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Because we live in a fallen and broken world as fallen and broken people with other fallen and broken people, we will face trials of every imaginable kind. This is not a sign that God does not care for us. In fact, it is just the opposite. God cares and has committed to using every trial in our lives and turning it into a treasure.

Regardless of where this finds you today, remember, God is at work in your life. As you process the trials and difficulties you face in life, keep in view the truth of these words of the psalmist, “In faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75). In faithfulness God sends the storms into our lives as a way to bring us to the end of ourselves. Only as we decrease, will our Lord Jesus increase in our lives. And experience has taught me that this happens not when the sky is blue and the clouds fleecy and the sun brightly shining. It happens with the storm winds are blowing.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned. (Isaiah 43:2)

In 1977 as I sat in a movie theatre with some high-school buddies, I watched the opening crawl of Star Wars light up the screen – “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . .” and I was locked in like millions of others and lit up like a Jedi light saber. Years later, after becoming a Christian, I began to marvel at all of the gospel themes in that incredible movie, and all the once to follow, rooted in redemption and rebirth – Good vs. Evil / Light vs. Darkness / Right vs. Wrong / Life vs. Death – just to name a few.

The title of today’s message is a wordplay on the iconic movie catchphrase, “May the Force be with you.”  This word of encouragement reimagines the Star Wars pun as a supernatural blessing of God’s personal presence in our lives, rooted in the biblical story found in Daniel chapter 3 about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to worship the golden image set up by king Nebuchadnezzar. However, when the king looked into the furnace, he said these words, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” His servants replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.” The king replied, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

The fourth man is what we theologians call a Christophany – a preincarnate appearance of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In their time of greatest need having been thrown into the fiery furnace facing certain death, God shows up and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are totally protected by the presence of God. They are unbound. They are unharmed. They are unfazed. Notice, the only thing that was burned up in the fire were the cords that bound them. Oh, what a Great God we have who meets us in our deepest place of need. The Lord Jesus is with us through every trial and fiery furnace we face.  

In closing, happy May the Fourth. Receive and rest in the promise of God to never leave nor forsake you. Embrace that eternal encouragement this Star Wars Day, and remember, He who began that great work in you will one day bring it to completion because the Fourth Man is with you every step of the way.

If you would like to hear the sermon I preached on this subject last year, Sunday May 4, 2025, you can go to Cross Community Church – Deerfield Beach – click on the live sermons and scroll back.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)

We have a tendency to think that God only leads us from the front. But this is not true. He leads us from behind too. And the reason is clear. At times we all need God to push from behind for two reasons: first, we have settled into the place we currently are without any forward progress; second, there is a storm up ahead and we will need God to push us through it. Either way, being led from behind is a great grace from God.

In looking back over your life, can you not see the times when God was leading you from behind? Perhaps there was an unexpected storm that suddenly came up in your life similar to the ones that happened on the Sea of Galilee. Without God pushing you through the storm, you would have hunkered down and simply tried to weather it, right where it found you. Surely you can see times when God had to overcome inertia in your life to get you to answer His call in your life. If you are anything like me, this is simply the confession of your life.

Think about it this way. If God were only to lead us from the front, we would have a tendency to ease up a bit as long as we had Him in view. We would grow only into a fraction of the person He is calling us to be. So, in God’s providence, He often leads us from behind, causing us to rely not on what we see in front of us, but on what we know within us. This is one of the ways God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight, growing us to be more acutely aware of God’s voice in our lives. 

So, whether you find yourself in a season where God is leading you from the front or from behind, as long as you are trusting in Him, you will ultimately get to your promised destination. And along the way, you will be growing and maturing in your faith, looking ahead and listening behind.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

My heart, O God is steadfast, my heart is steadfast. (Psalm 57:7)

As the sheep of our Great Shepherd, we all have a tendency to wander. Sheep simply stray away from their Shepherd. But there is a huge difference between straying in our way and straying in our hearts.

When we read through the Bible, we are confronted, time and time again, with those who strayed in their way. Abraham lied about his wife Sarah being his sister to save his own skin, not once, but twice. Moses killed an Egyptian overseer who was beating a Hebrew slave. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and plotted to murder her husband. Martha gave a mild rebuke to Jesus instructing Him to tell her sister Mary to return to her duties in the kitchen. Peter denied Jesus three times on the night he was betrayed. These are just a few examples of those who strayed away from God in their way. But they did not stray in their hearts and that made all the difference in the world.

We all at times stray in our way. We say things we ought not say. We do things we ought not do. We think things we ought not think. And we desire things we ought not desire. We do everything we do imperfectly in our walk with Jesus. But this does not mean we have strayed in our heart. The heart that has been changed by grace through faith and beats for Jesus, always beats imperfectly. The heart that strays is the heart that is unconvinced and unpersuaded by the truths of God’s Word. This is what happened to the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings – God said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways” (Hebrews 3:10).

The key to stay the heart on our Savior is to stay in the Word. The more we are in the Word, the more the Word will get into us and the stronger our hearts will beat for Jesus. Remember, when you mess things up and stray in your way, look to the One who is at work within you and promised to complete that work – but not until you are received in glory.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15)

On Monday we looked at the freedom we have been given through the cross work of Christ. On Wednesday we looked at our forgiveness. Today we will look at our . . .

Faith

Once we have been set free through the forgiveness of our sins, we are now ready to live a life of faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ because “God made us alive with Christ” (Colossians 2:13). Through the cross work of Christ, we have been raised from death to life. God has given us a new heart, with new desires, and ultimately a new devotion to Jesus. God in Christ crucified our old sinful and rebellious nature and has given us a new loving nature. Before Jesus, we had no power to live a life that was pleasing, acceptable, and glorifying to God. But now, we have the same resurrection power coursing through our veins that raised Jesus from death to life on that first Easter morning.

We are no longer slaves to sin. Rather, we are sons of the Most-High God, and now have the ability to glorify God in what we think, do, say, and desire. Now, we will not do this perfectly until we cross the Jordan and are received into glory. But what we will do is desire living a life that is pleasing and glorifying to God and that will cause us to live increasingly more for Jesus and less for ourselves.

Remember, we were once dead in our sins. We were a cold, corrupted, contaminated, corpse that could not respond spiritually to God. We were, “dead men walking!” But, with our new life in Christ through a faith that has been given to us because we have trusted in Christ alone, we are moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to prefer Him more – to prize Him more – to please Him more. Having trusted in Jesus, we now treasure Him above all things. 

The ultimate disarming of the devil is through our new desire to live for something bigger than the self. You see, once you are in Christ, the devil cannot take you out of His hand. But what he can do is mess up your life along the way into glory. The devil’s goal now is to distract us from our devotion to Jesus to disrupt our lives.

Remember, through our freedom, forgiveness and our faith, we are given the power to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus and ‘No’ to the self. The devil has been disarmed. Let that truth set all of us free to live lives of meaning, significance, and purpose for the glory of God and the good of all others.     

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!