Grace for the Race

It is said of these people, “They kiss calf-idols!” (Hosea 13:2)

The people of God had left their first love and in willful rebellion, chased after smaller gods that promised life, but delivered only death. This is always true when we chase after anything smaller than Jesus. Oh, it may look like life and it may even feel like life, but in the end, it cannot deliver on its promise and brings with it only destruction and death. Let this serve as a word of warning this day – kiss not the calf – for it cannot satisfy the longing of your heart. Instead, bow the knee and kiss your Christ – for He will meet you in your deepest place of need.

Now the problem with a message like this today in our contemporary church culture is we have a tendency to picture the “golden calf” the Israelites made and began to worship when Moses was too long up on the mountain of God. But this would be a grave mistake. To be sure, it was a real gold statue of a calf that the people did bow down to and begin to worship, but we know those were primitive people and we are far too educated and cultured to do such a thing. It is true that most people today would not bow down and worship a gold statue of a calf. Rather, they will worship idols that are far less noticeable like a job, a relationship, success, finances, a hobby, social status, physical beauty, greed, which is “idolatry” as Paul writes in Colossians 3:5. The list, of course, is endless.  

It’s important to make note of this list that most of the things on it are not bad things. They are good things like a job or a relationship or a hobby or physical health and beauty. The problem is when these, and countless other good things, become ultimate things in our lives, they then become bad things. They enslave us and become life-altering, and cause us to do things we ought not do and often, hurt ourselves and our loved ones along the way. Make no mistake, we all “kiss calf-idols” from time to time. Sometimes they are clearly bad for us like greed and immorality. But more often than not, they are good for us and the greater the good the greater our expectation of having our deepest needs met by it.

What we must remember is the truth that good things become bad things when they become ultimate things. So, have you kissed the calf lately? Have you sought after anything smaller than God to give to you what only God can give? Remember, we all come from the factory with a God-sized void inside. Only when we fill it with God do we find the happiness and joy and satisfaction we so desperately desire. So, kiss not the calf. Rather, like the prostitute who anointed our Lord with expensive ointment, kiss the feet of Jesus Christ and your internal void will be filled to overflowing.

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

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.” (Matthew 6:19)

One of the great blessings of being a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is found in the gift of “Divine Disencumberment,” where God supernaturally shifts our focus away from earthly treasure to heavenly treasure. The same grace God used to raise us from death to life, is the same grace God uses to raise us above seeking after earthly treasure, “where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19). So, is “Divine Disencumberment” one of the marks of your life today?

Before we were saved, by grace through faith, we sought after the stuff of this life. In our worldly mindedness, we looked to satisfy the desires of the flesh through the attainment of any of the 5 p’s – power, position, prestige, prosperity, pleasure – and make no mistake, the more we were in hot pursuit of any of these things, the more we became encumbered with the flesh and temporal satisfaction. The more we pursue the stuff of this life, the less we pursue our beloved Savior and the result of this worldly pursuit is to multiply the cares of this life.

Now the true disciple of Christ says NO to worldliness and YES to the Word. Remember, it’s not a matter of eliminating pursuit. It’s a matter of pursuing the right things. You see, the problem is not desire. The problem is desiring the wrong things. Our hearts should beat after “all things above,” pursuing the life God has called us to live. Throughout life, we are being conformed into the image of our Lord Jesus. The more we are conformed into His image, the less we are encumbered with the stuff of this life.

Divine Disencumberment is a grace that grows in the heart that beats for nothing smaller than Jesus. The true disciple is one who seeks first the kingdom of heaven because he knows that everything else will follow. God has promised to meet all our needs in the glorious riches of His precious Son, our beloved Savior. We need only keep the main thing the main thing, allowing Jesus His rightful place in our lives – on the throne of our hearts. Divine Disencumberment frees us from a life filled with empty pursuits and fills us with the eternal promise that “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it” (Proverbs 10:22).

So, what treasures have you been storing up for yourself lately? What does the confession of your life say to those who know you best? Remember, we are all hunting some kind of treasure. The key is to hunt after the treasures that are holy then Divine Disencumberment will follow you wherever you go.

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

“I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Matthew 9:6)

We all have a tendency to mistake wants for needs. How often do we say, “I need this” or “I need that” when in actuality, we don’t need it at all. We simply want it and we want it so badly we have put it in the category of need. With that being said, which should give us all a moment of pause to check our want list today, let me encourage you by sharing the importance of understanding our greatest need and how it has been met.

The greatest need every person has is forgiveness. Unless our sins are forgiven, we will spend eternity separated from the love of God in that awful place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28). To die without Christ is to die in our sins. But this need not be the case for those who know the truth of our verse today and have received it by grace, through faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ has the authority and the power to forgive sins, our sins, all of our sins. Jesus Christ was born to die in our place to pay the penalty of our sin and at this very moment, He has the power to pardon, no matter what we have done. His wounds bear witness to that power and authority.

He who knew no sin became sin for all those who would trust in Him as Lord and Savior. Penalty paid. Atonement made. Debt satisfied. And God the Father put His supernatural stamp of approval on the cross work of His beloved Son by raising Him from the grave on the third day, according to the Scriptures. To all those He has granted repentance for sin, He has guaranteed remission of sin. The power of His passion is perpetual. Never shall the fountain of forgiveness run dry. Let this truth set us free from the gnawing guilt that keeps us from growing into the person God is calling us to be. To be sure, we ought to be filled with a godly sorrow when we sin and break the heart of God. But after we have taken it to the throne of grace, we are to remember that it has been nailed to the cross and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.

Beloved, because your greatest need has been met, you should be experiencing the peace that passes all understanding daily. Let not the evil one make you a prisoner to your past. We are to learn from the past, not live there. Because His mercies are new every morning, rise up this day and live as one who has been forgiven and can never be forsaken. Oh, the joy in knowing that our greatest need has been met and met each day by our Master.

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

Apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

There is a comforting challenge contained within our passage of Scripture today. When Jesus was talking about Himself as the “True Vine” and how we are His branches, to say, “Apart from me you can do nothing” was the same as saying “Connected to me you can do anything.”

We live in a world that is self-deceived by self-dependence. The self-dependent or self-reliant person is a myth and lives in a world of make-believe. No one ever has and no one ever will live a self-dependent life. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, when He came into this world, He lived not a self-dependent life. Rather, He lived in complete dependence upon God the Father through the power of God the Holy Spirit. To pursue a life of self-dependence is to pursue a life our Savior refused to live, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Think about it this way. Every breath you take and every beat of your heart is dependent upon the will of God. Only as God purposes for us the gift of life, do we have life and that life is totally dependent upon the will of God sustaining it. Every person is God-dependent whether they want to acknowledge it or not. When the world speaks of “will power” it is speaking in self-deceiving terms because “will” has absolutely no “power” apart from God. Listen, being god is not only hard, it is an impossible thing to do. When we attempt it, our hopes that our self-dependence will mask our weaknesses actually accomplish just the opposite. We end up appearing both anxious and afraid to those around us.

So, here is the question of the day we all need to ask ourselves. Are we trying to live a life of self-dependence, as branches disconnected to the True Vine? If you are sensing in any area of life that this is the case, simply turn your heart back to God and remember these words from the prophet Zechariah 4:6, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. Remember, self-dependence is self-deception. Stay close to Jesus through His Word, your prayers, and consistent connection to His people and you will be living the only kind of life that truly matters: Savior-dependence that brings glory to God, good to others and the deepest gratification to you.

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

“Ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:14)

Prayer is a powerful tool in the hands of God’s people. Why? Because there is infinite power in the name of Jesus Christ. Not only have we been invited to come boldly to the throne of grace, we have been instructed that anything we ask for in the name of Jesus, will be done. But I must make something clear before going on – to ask in Jesus name is to ask for Jesus sake.

Our prayers are to be directed at the expansion of Christ’s kingdom, not our own. Make no mistake, when God opened the way for us to come into His presence, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, He was not giving us a blank check to cash for the advancement of our personal affluence and a life of ease. To ask in Jesus name is to ask about the things that matter most to Him. In His High Priestly Prayer in John 17, we gain valuable insight as to what matters most to Jesus, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

As a sent people, we are to be living a life of other orientation. Jesus has commissioned us to live lives that bring glory to God and good to others . . . all others. We are to meet people in their place of need with the hands and feet of Christ. To pray in Jesus name is to pray for the advancement of the gospel and when we are praying like this, we can be assured our prayers will be answered with a resounding ‘YES!’

To pray in Jesus name is to pray to fulfill His plans and His purposes in this life. To pray in Jesus name is to lay aside our personal goals, agendas, dreams, and desires. It is to abandon the self as we advance in the direction of our Savior. As Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Yet, not my will, but thy will be done,” He was providing us with the model for a prayer life that is rooted in Jesus name. Finally, when you are praying in Jesus name, you are being reminded to rely on His wisdom, His power, His strength, and His guidance, and will be protected from the word of warning James provides to the people of God, “You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives so that you may spend it on your pleasure” (James 4:3).

Be encouraged today and take some time to pray in Jesus name, knowing that whatever you ask for in His name, He has promised to do for you.

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

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” (Ezekiel 34:11)

Oh, what a word of comfort we have before us today. Notice this most amazing truth – Our Lord Jesus Christ does not send someone out in His place to search for and look after His sheep. Oh no. The prophet Ezekiel tells us that “He Himself” is the Sovereign, Seeking, Searching, Shepherd Savior. And He is all that for you. Is that not a word of cosmic comfort to you today, regardless of where this finds you?

Notice something else contained within this text. Our salvation not only begins because of our Searching Savior, but it continues and is sustained because of our continually Searching Savior. No matter where and how often we wander away from our Savior, He chases us down and returns us to His sheep-fold. Now this does not happen when a certain number of His flock wander away. The parable of the Lost Sheep makes it perfectly clear that our Great Shepherd leaves the heard to go off and find the one single lost sheep and brings him back to the fold. You matter that much to Jesus.

One final point. To be “looked after by our Shepherd” is to be locked in to our salvation. The Bible tells us, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39). Jesus will not lose a single sheep and that includes you. Is this not a powerful promise to plead if at this time you find yourself away from the sheep-fold and away from your Shepherd? It sure was for Peter. When Peter denied Jesus three times on the night He was betrayed and that rooster crowed, his heart was broken for having wandered away from his Savior. But after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter by asking a simple question, not once, but three times – “Do you love me?”

If your answer is the same as Peters, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you” then you can be assured that nothing can ever separate you from your Searching Savior. Let that truth set you free today and every day until you cross the Jordan and enter into your eternal rest.

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

Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor. (Matthew 27:13-14)

Pilate presses our Lord to speak on His behalf and we read to our amazement that Jesus made “no reply.” Yet, in another passage of Scripture we read, “No one ever spoke the way this man spoke” (John 7:46). To be sure, there is, in the life of every disciple of Christ, a time to speak and a time to be silent. The key is to have the wisdom and discernment to know the time.

So much can be said about these two words that can bring great encouragement into the life of the Christian. Jesus made “no reply” when words might have brought a blessing to Himself. But never did He withhold His words when He could bless others. 

Jesus said to the fishermen He found down by the shore, “Come” and they became fishers of men. 

Jesus said to the man up in a tree, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately” and he rose up into the ministry of the gospel along side of His Master. 

Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Will you give me a drink?” and she was given “living water” and became the first evangelist in her town of Samaria, and many became believers. 

Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” and she left His presence forgiven and faithful to Her Lord. 

These are just a few of the many examples of the words of Jesus blessing others. He gave “no reply” to Pilate, refusing to provide a defense against the false accusations, but He never missed the opportunity to defend and bless others. So where has Jesus spoken in your life that brought to you great blessing? Remember, Jesus made no reply because He chose to take our place and die on a cross. Jesus made no reply so He could drink the full cup of God’s wrath. This was the time for Jesus to be silent because His silence testified to Him being the True Lamb of God who was silent “as a sheep before its shearers is silent.” But regarding your relationship with Him, He has not stopped speaking life to you and will not all the way into glory.

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

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Make no mistake about this biblical truth – your life . . . my life . . . everyone’s life . . . will serve as either an example to follow or a warning to avoid. As a coach for decades, I have always been amazed at this statement from high-profile athletes, “I am not a role model!” The truth is, they may not want to be a role model, but they are for someone who is watching. The same can be said for everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ. 

Did you know that you are the only “Bible” some people will ever read. They know nothing about the 66 books of sacred Scripture. But they know much about the life they see you living before their eyes. And because you are a disciple of Jesus, the way you live is what they come to know about the Jesus of the Bible. So, the question that needs to be asked is this: “Is your life serving as an example to follow or a warning to avoid?” 

Now let me make something perfectly clear. I am not speaking about living a perfect life. Only Jesus did that. We live every aspect of our lives imperfectly. We all do things we ought not do; say things we ought not say; and think things we ought not think. But what I am talking about is the desire to live a life that is pleasing to God, knowing it will not be perfect on this side of the grave. 

Peter’s life was far from perfect, having denied our Lord three times and refusing to eat with Gentile Christians. Yet, the life Peter lived serves as a wonderful example of what it means to live for nothing smaller than Jesus, yet living it imperfectly. Every great saint in Scripture and in the history books have their share of blemishes and warts for all-the world to see. But that just makes them more real to us.  Even when others don’t see our short-comings, we know they are there.  We know when we do not measure up. But, in spite of our imperfections, God has chosen us to put the gospel on display. Remember, God uses imperfect people because that’s all He’s got. 

So, have you considered the example you are setting for those who are watching you? When you mess it up, confess it and ask for forgiveness . . . from God and those you might have offended or hurt. Then get on with life and live it, as much as it is within your power, for the good of others and the glory of God. Everyone is an example – including you?

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

When Jesus entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.  Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. (Mark 2:1-4)

Every time I read this passage I have two thought-provoking questions: First, do I have any sold-out friends like that who would make a hole in someone’s roof because the doorway was blocked, just to get me in front of Jesus? Second, am I a sold-out friend like that to anyone in my life right now, where I refuse to be denied in bringing them before Jesus? Powerful questions don’t you think?

Sold-out saints have a way of making things happen for the good of others and the glory of God. They simply refuse to be denied. Blocked doors will not keep them out. Crowded rooms will not cause them to shy away. And if they cannot bring someone to Jesus by the ordinary way that has been set before them, they will simply make a new way and not stop until they get before our Lord.

Luke shares this insight on the above account, “When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd” (Luke 5:19). What great risk these men took to get their paralyzed friend before the Christ. Just the sound of them on the roof would have drawn the attention of those in the home. Then when they started digging and tearing away at the roof tiles, everyone below would be looking up as dust and pieces of the roof began to cascade down into the room below. 

I really cannot think of any better phrase than “sold-out” saints in reading this account. They would let nothing stand in their way in getting their friend an audience with Jesus. And how did Jesus respond?

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”  Then Jesus said, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” (Mark 2:5, 11)       

Their “sold-out” faith not only brought their friend physical healing, but spiritual healing as well. So the question I want to leave you with today is this: Do you have the kind of “sold-out” faith that will tear through roof tiles to get someone you know before the Savior of the World? May that be the confession of all our lives as we look for opportunities to bless those God has put in our lives to the glory of the praise of His name. 

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

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”   (1 Corinthians 10:13)

As a pastor, I cannot count how many times I have heard people say that the temptations they are dealing with are sin. Not true!  Jesus was tempted. We are all tempted. Temptation is simply a part of living in a fallen and broken world. It is giving in to temptation that is sin and who reading this right now does not know this truth by way of personal experience. So what is the key to fighting against the temptations that we all face? 

Perhaps there is no better section in all of sacred Scripture that can strengthen us when we are facing temptation than the wilderness experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. After forty days fasting, the devil comes to Jesus and tempts Him, not once, but three times. And each time Jesus deals with the temptations of the devil the same way . . . with Scripture. With each temptation, Jesus used Scripture for strength so as not to be overtaken by it. 

Now it is important to note one thing in the encounter between Jesus and the devil in the wilderness. Both quoted Scripture. Both Jesus and the devil know the Word of God. What that means is they both were students of Scripture. They were both in the Word of God. But there was one great difference between Jesus and the devil.  Inasmuch as both were in the Word of God, the Word of God was only in Jesus. You see, it’s not enough to simply know and be able to quote Scripture. We must be submitted and surrendered to its authority and rule in our lives. 

So, what temptations have you been wrestling with lately? In your personal life? In your professional life? Remember, temptation is not sin. It is giving in to the temptation that is. The more we get into the Word of God, the more the Word of God will get into us, and the better we will be able to fight against it. Oh, one final thing. When temptation does overtake you, remember the cross. Jesus has already paid for that sin and you have already been forgiven for that sin. Yes, grieve over your sin. Yes, be filled with a godly sorrow and repent of your sin. But never forget, nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Not Satan or even your sin. Now that is a personal and powerful promise from our God. 

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