Monthly Archives: February 2011

Have you ever said this to someone else?  If you’ve not said it out loud, you probably thought it on more than one occasion.  Now, it’s one thing to say this to another person; it is another thing altogether to say this to the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who sought you, bought you, and caught you with the blood of His precious Son.

If you were to say, “If You really loved me, You would . . . ” to God, how would you finish the sentence?  The answer we give to that question will go a long way in uncovering what matters most to us in life.  The primary problem with a statement like that is the fact that it shouts to Omniscience that we are the ultimate authority of defining what love is.  How utterly ridiculous—especially in light of the clear, complete definition of love given in Scripture:  

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Based on the biblical definition of love, it’s easy to see just how absurd a statement like “If You really loved me” really is when directed to God.  As remarkable as the Corinthians passage on love is, the most striking portion is found in the last three words: “love never ends.”  Regardless of the circumstances you are experiencing in life right now, GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU NEVER ENDS!  Marinate in that truth for just a moment as you consider the Corinthians passage above.

• When you are impatient . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you are unkind . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you are envious and rude . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you are arrogant and boastful . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you insist on getting your own way . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you are irritable and resentful . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you rejoice in wrongdoing rather than in truth . . . God’s love for you never ends
• When you fail to bear, believe, hope, and endure all things . . . God’s love for you never ends!

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  No matter what you do, no matter what you fail to do, God’s love for you never ends!  And remember, all of the attitudes and actions listed above are sins; and yet, in spite of our sin, we are still loved by God.  I know these are not the spectacular, fall-from-the-sky, crash-and-burn kind of sins, but they are sins nonetheless.  God hates sin with an implacable, holy hatred, but He still loves the sinner so much to have sent His precious Son to the cross to pay for every sin of commission and omission.  True love expresses itself in the face of being wronged, hurt, inconvenienced, let down, betrayed . . . and even sinned against.  

Because of what Jesus has done for you, the love of God is forever yours.  Next time you think of saying to God, “If You really loved me, You would,” remember that He does love you with an eternal and everlasting love, regardless of what your circumstances in life say to you.

There are a lot of people in the church today that would say their love for God has no limits.  The Rich Young Ruler said the same thing in his encounter with Jesus.  But was it true? 

A ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”  And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.”  (Luke 18:21)

You would be hard pressed to find a statement that shouts “Limit lover!” more than this one.  The ruler tells Jesus that he has kept all of the commandments from the time he was a young boy.  Let’s say this young man had indeed kept all of the commandments from his youth, as he so proudly proclaimed to Jesus (which he most certainly had not; see 1 Kings 8:46), his love still had limits.  When Jesus told him to sell his stuff, give to the poor, and follow Him, it placed far too much demand on the young ruler and exposed his heart and the limits he had placed on his love of God.  His love found its limits when it came to his stuff. 

Being a “no limit lover” is not easy, but it is possible by the power of the Gospel and the fruit of the Spirit.  You see, the Gospel frees us from bondage to the stuff of this world so we can give our heart—all of our heart—to our Savior.

Here are two marks that characterize “limit lovers” like the young ruler:

1. Unconditional Loving – when forced to choose between his love for Jesus and his possessions, the young ruler showed his true colors.  His love for Jesus was conditional; he would love his Savior with no limits . . . just as long as he could keep his stuff too! 

2. Sacrificial Giving – when forced to choose between his possessions and the Prince of Peace and the poor of this world, his true colors beamed brightly once again.  His love for Jesus and those Jesus loved was conditional; he would love just as long as it did not hurt, inconvenience, or deprive him of the stuff of this world.   

So . . . do you have any limits on your love for your Lord?  Is there something you are holding on to more tightly than Jesus?  Is there something you believe you simply cannot live without that is smaller than God?

Or maybe you truly are a “no limit lover.”  Do you love unconditionally, regardless of the cost or circumstance?  Do you give sacrificially until it hurts, disrupts your style of living, or moves you out of your zone of comfort?  No limit lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ are ready, willing, and able to sacrifice all for Him.  They could never be confused with those who are said to be “lukewarm” in their love for Jesus . . . those who have one foot in the world and one foot in the Word . . . those who have divided their affections between their Savior and their stuff.  No limit lovers live out the truth of the two greatest commandments.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  There is no other commandment greater than these.

(Mark 12:30-31) 

Do you see that the rich young ruler broke the very first commandment by making his possessions his god and greatest goal in life?  The key to being a “no limit lover” of the Lord is to keep the fact before you that you are a great sinner in need of an even greater Savior, and His name is Jesus Christ.  And instead of giving sinners what they deserve—hell—He purchased us with His precious blood and gave us . . . heaven!

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

Have you been on the run from God lately?  Before you answer, let me describe two ways we run from God.  The first is by breaking the rules (riotous living) and the second is by keeping the rules (religious living).  There is no better place to see both of these errors in action than in the parable of the prodigal son.

It’s easy to miss the fact that both sons were running from God.  The son who demanded his inheritance and took off for the far country, wasting all of his time, talent, and treasure on riotous living is easy to spot.  But what about the son who stayed behind?  How could he have been on the run from God?  Let’s take a look.

Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, “Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.” But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” And he said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”  (Luke 15:25-32)

The heart of the older son was finally and fully exposed when his brother returned from his riotous living.  Instead of sharing in the father’s joy when his lost brother returned home, “he was angry and refused to go in” to celebrate with his father and everyone in the household.  The older son was running from God by keeping the rules; his obedience flowed out of a heart anchored in duty, not devotion.

Tim Keller provides great insight into the condition of the heart of the elder brother who lives in all of us: 

The first sign you have an elder-brother spirit is that when your life doesn’t go as you want, you aren’t just sorrowful but deeply angry and bitter.  Elder brothers believe that if they live a good life they should get a good life, that God owes them a smooth road if they try very hard to live up to standards.  What happens, then, if you are an elder brother and things go wrong in your life?  If you feel you have been living up to your moral standards, you will be furious with God.  You don’t deserve this, you will think, after how hard you’ve worked to be a decent person.

Elder brothers’ inability to handle suffering arises from the fact that their moral observance is results-oriented.  The good life is lives not for delight in good deeds themselves, but as calculated ways to control their environment.

So, have you been running from God by riotous living or religious living—by breaking the rules or keeping the rules?  Either way, the only cure is the Gospel.  The power of the Gospel frees our hearts to find our satisfaction, meaning, purpose, and identity in Christ—no one and nothing else.  Both sons were trying to get these things by the way they were living.  Only when we find these things in the One we are living for are we truly free.

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

The Bible paints a stark picture of our spiritual condition before Jesus shows up; that picture is both bleak and black . . . but thank God the Bible doesn’t leave us there!  In the midst of this desolate picture, God gives us a word of tremendous comfort: BUT.  Here are a few of what I call the “Beautiful Buts” of the Bible:

You meant evil against me, BUT God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.  (Genesis 50:20)

My flesh and my heart may fail, BUT God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  (Psalm 73:26) 

When they had carried out all that was written of [Jesus], they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. BUT God raised him from the dead . . .(Acts 13:29-31)

By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.  BUT now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. (Romans 3:20-22)

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.  (Ephesians 2:1-5)

We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.  BUT when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.  (Titus 3:3-5)

We are unrighteous, BUT God provides our righteousness.  We are in darkness, BUT God sends His Light.  We are lost, BUT God sends our Great Shepherd to find us.  We are in prison, BUT God has come to set the captives free.  We are dead, BUT God provides life.  We are utterly ruined, BUT God provides our rescue.  There are so many beautiful “BUTS” in the Bible that are designed to free us from the helpless and hopeless feelings that beset us all apart from Christ. 

You don’t have to be a believer to know that something is radically wrong in this world.  BUT you do have to be a believer, by God’s grace, to understand what God has done about it.  What makes God’s provision so incredible is that we do absolutely nothing to secure it.  That was done on the cross by Jesus Christ on our behalf.  How incredible to know that in our rebellion and lost condition, God shows up with the keys to the Kingdom!  We were once objects of His holy wrath, BUT now we are objects of His unconditional love and deepest affection.

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

Disturbances can be quite annoying, from your neighbor’s noisy celebration that carries on long after midnight to that phone call right as you are sitting down for dinner—from an insistent telemarketer trying to sell you something.  I’m sure you can think of dozens of disturbances that disrupt your life.  So how is it possible to find grace in the disturbances of life?  When they are divine disturbances! 

Divine disturbances direct us to the power of the Gospel.  Divine disturbances are never delivered to the people of God as punishment; God is not exacting His proverbial “pound of flesh” because we have been disobedient.  Divine disturbances are always designed to drive the roots deeper into the soil of the sanctified life for two reasons:

1. Deliverance – God is in the business of delivering divine disturbances to His people to deliver them from themselves.  The goal here is to be able to echo John the Baptist: “I must decrease and He must increase.”    

2. Dependence – Divine disturbances are designed to deepen our dependence on God.  Disturbances demonstrate just how little control we actually have in life.  The goal here is to be able to say, as Jesus did in speaking of the Father, “I can do nothing on my own.”

Moses paints a wonderful picture of a divine disturbance in Deuteronomy 32:11-12.

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided [Jacob], no foreign god was with him.

The adult eagle knows what’s best for its young.  If left to themselves, the eaglets would forever cling to the nest, waiting for their next meal and never venturing out to fully realize their God-given potential.  You see, eagles were meant to soar the skies . . . not squat in nests.  So the parent eagle delivers a disturbance by driving the eaglets from the nest to begin living the life they were created for.

And so it is with our loving God.  His divine disturbances are designed to drive us out of whatever comfortable nest we are squatting in—whatever is keeping us from maximizing our potential and living in His perfect plan and purpose for our lives.  God uprooted Abraham when He commanded him to leave his home and go to a foreign land in order to be the father of a great nation.  God turned Joseph’s life upside-down when He delivered him into a pit and a prison on the way to the palace in order to save God’s people during the famine.  God plunged Jonah into the depths when He appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah . . . and three days later spit him out on the shore so that Jonah would fulfill his destiny as a preacher to the Ninevites.  God shattered Mary’s comfortable existence when He chose her to be the mother His only begotten Son before she was married.  God knocked Saul to the ground when He blinded him on the road to Damascus before restoring his sight, renaming him Paul, and transforming him from persecutor of the church to pastor of the church.  

Left to ourselves, we all naturally seek the path of least resistance.  We will go to great lengths to live our lives within our self-imposed confines of comfort and convenience, regardless of the cost.  And to be sure, the cost is great!  We forfeit the grace that is ours, as Jonah proclaimed: 

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  (Jonah 2:8)

The idols of comfort and convenience are two implacable enemies of the Christian faith.  When we hold on to them more tightly than we do Christ, we forfeit the fullness and richness of the life grace calls us to live.

Take a moment right now to inventory your life.  Perhaps God has ordained a divine disturbance to drive you out of your fluffy nest and into His best for your life. 

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

We talked a little about serving God leftovers on Monday’s blog.  Today we’ll dig deeper into this troubling theme.  Here is a true story that sums up the condition of the heart of every child of God from time to time, reported by radio commentator Paul Harvey years ago.

The Butterball Turkey Company setup a telephone hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys.  One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years.  The representative told her the turkey would be safe to eat, but did not recommend eating it because the flavor would have deteriorated.  The woman caller replied, “That’s what I thought.  Okay then, we’ll just give it to our church.”

Serving leftovers to family and friends can be one of the best things we can do.  When I make lasagna, it always seems to taste a little better served as a leftover.  This is true for a number of foods.  There really is nothing like home-made soup served again on the second day.  But there is nothing good about serving leftovers to God, which has become the norm for far too many Christians.  It is nothing less than idolatry.

On Monday we talked about the “Three T’s”—Time, Talent, and Treasure.  Here are a few other common leftovers. 

• We serve leftovers to God in our worship when we consistently show up late and pray for the preacher to “land the plane” so we can get on with our day. 
• We serve leftovers to God in our careers when we give less than our best effort, thinking, “Well, if this is all they pay, this is all they should expect!” 
• We serve leftovers to God in our relationships when we find more satisfaction in our relationships with others than we do in our relationship to God.

The menu of leftovers is all but endless.  Make no mistake, when we consistently remove God from first place in our lives, it is not long before He has virtually no place in our lives.

So . . . where in your life have you been serving leftovers to God?

The Scriptures provide several examples of the people of God offering Him leftovers.  None is more damning than the rebuke Malachi delivered to Israel’s priests.  They knew what the Law of Moses required for the animal sacrifices they offered to God.  All animal sacrifices were to be without spot or blemish, for two very good reasons.  First, God Himself is without spot or blemish.  And second, these unblemished animals were a foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice that was to come in Jesus Christ.

So what did the priests do?  The right thing?  Or the convenient thing? Hear the Word of the Lord:

A son honors his father, and a servant his master.  If then I am a father, where is my honor?  And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.  But you say, “How have we despised your name?”  By offering polluted food upon my altar.  But you say, “How have we polluted you?”  By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised.  (Malachi 1:6-7)

The priests chose the way of convenience and decided to give God less than their best animals.  They gave Him their leftovers and kept the best for themselves.  Their goal was to make worship what they wanted worship to be: convenient, comfortable, and cost effective.  They were thinking, “Why not get rid of the animals we really don’t want anyway?  They’re just going to go up in smoke!”

And we do exactly the same thing today when we give God less than our best.  Designed by God for God, we are to make Him our first priority.  His purposes are to be our purposes.  His plans are to be our plans.  His passions are to be our passions.  This is how we make sure we are giving God our best . . . and not just our leftovers.  When God said He is a “jealous God,” He was making it clear that He would tolerate no rival.  He demands exclusivity, and that is exactly what He deserves—not so much for what He does for us, but simply for who He is.  He is God, our Abba Father, and He is worthy of our absolute best. 

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

Today is Valentine’s Day.  Our two youngest children, Zack and Katie, exchange Valentines cards with their classmates.  Last year, as I helped them sort through the candy and cards, I came across the ever-popular little candy heart bearing the words “Be Mine.”  It got me thinking about the most unlikely Valentine in the world.  Do you know who it is?  It’s you . . . and me . . . along with everyone who has been set apart by faith to be a member of the bride of Christ.  Jesus said “Be Mine” on the day saved you, and He is still saying that to you today.

So . . . how are you responding to the heart’s cry of Christ?  Far too many of us mail it in, responding with what I call “leftover Christianity.”  That is, we do not give the One who gave us His best our best.  We give Jesus what is left over after we have taken good care of ourselves first.  We meet our needs and satisfy our desires first, and then we give Jesus our leftovers: what is left over from our time . . . what is left over from our talent . . . and what is left over from our treasure.

Let me hit you with a harsher word for “leftover” Christianity: idolatry.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.  But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.  What I have vowed I will make good.  Salvation comes from the Lord.  (Jonah 2:8-9 NIV)

My friend and pastor, Tullian Tchividjian, took us on a marvelous study of Jonah in a sermon series last year, which he later condensed into a fabulous book, Surprised By Grace.  When you read the book, you’ll see that Jonah didn’t even want to give God his leftovers!  He wanted nothing to do with God’s plan for his life . . . until God introduced Jonah to a fish named Grace.  It was grace that swallowed up Jonah for three days, so that he could come to his senses and follow God’s plan for his life.

I want to emphasize that the grace that we forfeit when we cling to worthless idols is not saving grace.  Once we are His we are always His, no matter what we do; that is the good news of the Gospel.  What we forfeit when we turn our hearts away from God is the abundant and overwhelmingly rich experience of His daily grace in our lives.  When we love anything smaller than God, our experience of His grace shrinks down to the size of whatever it is we are loving.  At this level of living, we don’t sense the richness of His pleasure, the satisfaction of His purpose, and the power of His passion.

Yet in spite of all the times we turn away from God, He still calls out to us “Be Mine!”  This is a love that is hard to comprehend.  This is a love that sent Jesus to the cross to pay for our sins.  This is a love that can never be taken away . . . that will never be taken away!  This is a love that is unconditional, unwavering, unmatched, and unimaginable.

So how will you respond to the greatest Valentine the world has ever seen?  Where in your life is God calling you to leave your worthless idols and return to Him?  I exhort you to let His “Be Mine” be the number one priority in your life. 

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

This phrase, which many believe appears in sacred Scripture but most certainly does not, is received as great good news for all of us who want to maintain control of our own lives.  If we do enough, we reason, if we work diligently and keep trying harder, God is obliged to help us, bless us, and make things go well for us.

This theory offers a great deal of control for those who believe it’s all up to them.  They don’t have to trust in God; they need only trust in themselves.  In his book Transforming Grace, which I highly recommend, Jerry Bridges sheds some light on just how common this problem is in today’s church:

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our personal relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.  If we’ve performed well—whatever “well” is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us.  If we haven’t done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.  In this sense, we live by works rather than by grace.  We are saved by grace, but we are living by the “sweat” of our own performance. 

Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to “try harder.”  We seem to believe success in the Christian life (however we define success) is basically up to us: our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way.  We give lip service to the attitude of the apostle Paul, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10), but our unspoken motto is, “God helps those who help themselves.” 

The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience. 

The good news of the Gospel is the truth that God’s blessings flow because of what Christ has done on our behalf, not what we do for ourselves.  God helps us because of who we are in Christ, not because of what we do for Christ.  We simply cannot broker God’s favor, and it is so marvelously liberating to know that there is nothing we can do or need to do in order to gain the blessings of our God.  We already have been blessed and will be blessed because of Jesus!

For recovering Pharisees like me, this can be a hard truth to swallow.  But it is the only truth that empowers us to live the kind of life Christ purchased for us by shedding His precious blood on the cross.  When He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), He meant what He said!  Not only has the price for our salvation been paid in full, so too has the full price been paid for our sanctification.  The same grace that saved us is the same grace that sanctifies us—moment by moment—until He brings us home.

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

At first glance, the title of today’s message might lead you to believe we are going to focus on the current state of the American economy.  Not true; we’re going to look at a far more important economy—God’s—and how it has turned the world upside-down. 

Consider Jesus’ remarkable statements concerning the upside-down, counterintuitive economy of God:

Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  (Mark 8:35)

The last will be first, and the first last.  (Matthew 20:16)

Lose your life to save it?  The first will be last?  What’s going on here?  The best way to interpret Scripture is to let Scripture interpret itself, and there is no better place to interpret the counterintuitive economy of God than with the story of David being anointed as king of Israel.  When God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint Israel’s new king, Samuel was initially basing his pick on outward appearances.  But as Samuel looked upon the sons of Jesse, God said something that helps us understand His upside-down economy. 

The Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.  For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

(1 Samuel 16:7)

When Jesus said “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it,” He was telling His disciples that the Christian life was a life of service marked by sacrifice, suffering, and sorrow.  When Jesus said “The last will be first, and the first last,” He was telling His disciples that power, prestige, and position in this life do not necessarily correspond to the same things in the next life.  In fact, the reverse is often true! 

In God’s economy, what is unseen is more important than what is seen; what goes on inside of us is more important than what is going on outside of us.  Problems occur when we spend too much time focusing on what is seen rather than what is unseen—what’s going on outside of us rather than inside of us.

Some years back, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a song titled, “The Change.” The chorus lyrics are:

What about the change?

What about the difference?

What about grace?

What about forgiveness?

I want to live a life that’s showing

I’m undergoing

the change.

That’s it! Instead of praying for bigger barns, we should be praying for bigger hearts.  And it is only the power of the Gospel that causes us to pray in such a way. 

You see, the Gospel isn’t just the truth that unbelievers must believe in order to receive eternal life.  It is a moment-by-moment reality that believers must embrace so that they can “abundantly” experience their salvation (John 10:10).  Many in the church mistakenly believe that only the unbeliever is in need of the Gospel.  But the reality set forth in the Scriptures is that both the unbeliever and the believer need the Gospel, because the Gospel is for sinners—all sinners—who are in need of a Savior. 

The Gospel frees us from our bondage to the economy of the world—frees us from forever running on the performance treadmill—and allows us to embrace the upside-down economy of our God with great joy!  The Gospel is how we set about undergoing the change.

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

What are you living for?  What gives you meaning?  Where do you find your identity?  How do you define success?  If your answer to any of these questions is not “Jesus,” then you are living the hopelessness of the horizontal.  The emptiness of a horizontal existence is rooted in the fact that nothing in this world was ever meant to satisfy you at the deepest level.  This place in your heart is reserved for Christ alone.   

Someone once said, “Keep your tent pegs shallow!”  In other words, don’t get too attached to this world, because you are a pilgrim who is just passing through.  We are always on the move, longing for home, and never arriving until we get to the other side.  As the writer of Hebrews said, “Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14).

So . . . how attached are you to this world?  Prayerfully consider the answer to this question:

1. If I had __________ I would finally be satisfied. 

Honestly now . . . how did you answer?  What rules your heart shapes you life.  If you believe you need anything or anyone in addition to Jesus in order to be truly satisfied, you are living the hopelessness of the horizontal.  I say that horizontal living is “hopeless” because everything this world has to offer will ultimately disappoint you.  We all intuitively know this to be true, because the world and everything in it no longer satisfies our deepest desires.  Can you think of anything in this life that has not disappointed you? 

• Jobs disappoint
• Relationships disappoint
• Accomplishments disappoint
• Prosperity disappoints
• Pleasure disappoints
• Even the church disappoints

Broken things inevitably frustrate and disappoint us, and everything on this side of heaven is broken . . . including you!  And your disappointment will lead to discouragement, delusion, depression, and ultimate defeat. 

So what is our hope?  We exchange horizontal living for vertical living by living for the Savior rather than living for ourselves.  You see, your redemption is not just about you; it is primarily about God and His cosmic work of redemption and renewal of the entire cosmos.  And you have been called to participate in this eternal work!  When we work to expand the cause of our own kingdom we are always disappointed.  But when we are working to expand the cause of His kingdom, we are working for something so much bigger and so much more vital than our own existence!  And that is the crossroads where purpose meets passion.  At this level of living, the hopelessness of the horizontal is removed for the vision of the Vertical.  You see, “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

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