Monthly Archives: July 2011

I remember when God saved my wife, Kim, and me in September of 1995; we were so excited about the personal benefits of our salvation!  Jesus was going to give us our best life now—a better marriage, more prosperity in our business, optimal health, influential friends, and obedient children.  We made the rescue Jesus had provided for us all about us, not about Him, and during the next few years we began shrinking our salvation.  Does this resonate with you?

Thankfully, God did not leave us in our short-sighted self-absorption.  Through a variety of grace teachers, including Steve Brown and Jerry Bridges, God graciously shifted our focus from ourselves to His Son.  During that process we began to see that our redemption was about so much more than what we had imagined to be a “good” life.  Jesus didn’t save us to make us good, but to make us His; and as His children we are to be more concerned about His kingdom than ours. 

God not only rescues us from our sin, He rescues us from ourselves!  Self-focused living was never the goal of our redemption.  We are delivered from our slavery to self and circumstances so that we can focus on the One who saved us.  We are set free to live a life that is bigger than our own lives.  God is on a mission of “making all things new” (Revelation 21:5), and He raises us from death to life to be part of this incredible cosmic restoration process. 

When we understand God’s purpose, we can begin to see beyond the constricted borders of our own little lives.  We can shift our focus away from what we want to what God wants . . . from what we desire to what God desires . . . from what we love to what God loves.  This is when where our salvation stops shrinking and begins stretching—through sacrificial service to God and others.    

When we are wrapped up in our own lives, we utilize our time, talent, and treasure to serve ourselves and advance the cause of our own kingdom.  But when we are wrapped up in the life of our Savior, we pour out our time, talent, and treasure to serve Him and advance the cause of His kingdom, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  When we are living at this level, we can be assured that we are not shrinking our salvation.

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

Today we celebrate the signing of our Declaration of Independence in 1776.  July 4^th is a national observance of the anniversary of the beginnings of national independence of the American colonists from the authority of the British Crown.  As important as this day is in the life of our great nation for independence, it is critical that we never forget to declare our dependence upon God.

Sadly, Adam and Eve forgot this truth and sent the entire cosmos into a downward spiral of depravity, decadence, and death.  Many Christians mistakenly believe our dependence began in the Garden of Eden when our first parents sinned.  Not true!  Prior to sinning, Adam and Eve were fully dependent upon God for everything.  Their divine design was one of dependence.  They were created never to live for a single moment independent and separated from God.  Self-focus, self-centeredness, self-satisfaction, self-reliance, self-rule, and self-survival were never part of their blueprint—these were a result of their act of cosmic treason. 

The serpent in the garden convinced Eve of a lie, and Eve convinced Adam that they should seek their independence from God and live above and apart from the One who created them.  Ironically, instead of the “independence” Satan had promised, our first parents were now totally dependent upon God for His mercy and forgiveness, which they received through the grace of the promised Savior.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel . . . And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

(Genesis 3:15, 21)

God would have been totally justified in striking down Adam and Eve right on the spot to satisfy His holy justice.  But He did not.  What God’s justice required—payment for sin—God’s grace provided in the giving of His precious Son, Jesus Christ.  Adam and Eve were dependent upon God for life prior to sin and they were dependent upon God for life after sin . . . through the cross work of Christ. 

When was the last time you considered just how dependent you are on God?  Most people immediately reflect back on a season of struggle, suffering, or sorrow and acknowledge how dependent upon God they were to get through it.  But what about the times in life when the sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the clouds are fleecy?  In seasons of plenty and prosperity we have a tendency to forget about our dependence upon God. 

Regardless of where this finds you, your next breath is dependent upon God.  The next beat of your heart is dependent upon God.  Your hearing, eyesight and the circulation of your blood are dependent upon God.  “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:36).  If God were not upholding you right now, life as you know it would cease.  This is true for every person who has ever lived and for everything that was ever created.  Everything in the cosmos was created by God, for God, and is totally dependent upon God, originally existing as a holy hymn for His glory.  So—as Americans celebrate their independence from the evil and self-centered rule of sinful man—let us all be reminded of our total and utter dependence upon God, “For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

I cannot think of a better time than right now to declare and celebrate our utter dependence upon the righteous, self-sacrificial, and benevolent rule of our Gracious God. 

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

Today’s message is based on the truth of 1 John 4:7-8—“God is love.”

Let me ask you: are you in love with Love?  Before you quickly respond “YES,” like every good Christian would do, consider this challenge from John Piper, in his book God Is The Gospel:

The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

If your answer to Pastor Piper’s question about being satisfied with a heaven where there is no Jesus is “Yes,” then your answer to my question is NO.

Is there something you have in this life that, if it was lost or taken away, your life would be ruined . . . over . . . driven into the ashes of defeat?  Is it your job?  Your spouse or children? Your retirement fund?  Your health?  Your status in your community?  If there such an ultimate thing, you can be assured you are in love with it more than you are with the One who so graciously gave it to you!  You have created an idol for yourself that is every bit as abhorrent as the golden calf fashioned by Israel so many years ago.

Please give this some thought: if you did not have Jesus, how different would your life be today?  God cares about us SO much more than we care about Him!  We chase after worldly success; God drives us toward holiness and godliness.  We pursue the temporary pleasures of this world; God drives us toward the eternal pleasures of the new heaven and earth.  God loves us with a love we simply cannot fathom, “an everlasting love,” as He proclaims in Jeremiah 31:3. 

To be in love with Love is to pursue Him, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  That doesn’t mean you try harder to love Him and make bigger and bolder promises to follow through.  If loving Him is an obligation, your love for Him is more about you than it is about Him.  Rather than loving out of obligation, we are to love out of overflow—the overflow of our relationship to Jesus.  This is the love that Love desires.     

Now, if your meditation on these questions leads you to a place where you feel far from God and His love, do not despair; in fact, cheer up!  He hasn’t moved away from you; you moved away from Him!  All you need to do is start moving back toward Him.

“Come near to God and he will come near to you,” James 4:8 assures us.  Jesus paints a glorious picture of the steadfast love He has toward us in the story of the return of the Prodigal, plodding fearfully toward home, no doubt still stinking from his time in the hog pens, wondering how his Father, whom he had insulted so grievously, would react to the sight of him in his abject failure and filth.  “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20).  That is how much you are loved!

You cannot wander your way out of His love.  You cannot drift your way out of His love.  You cannot sin your way out of His love.  Because He is Love and you are His, you are loved—eternally and everlastingly. 

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