Monthly Archives: July 2019

“I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:4)

Did you ever consider that the man who asked God to take his life never did taste death, but instead was carried off to heaven in a chariot of fire? After God granted Elijah a great victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, the prophet feared for his life and went on the run from evil Queen Jezebel. Instead of continuing to trust in the God who had caused one man to triumph over 450 pagan prophets, Elijah was paralyzed by Jezebel’s threats and cried out to God to kill him. However, God had no intention of granting Elijah’s selfish and sinful request. God knew what was best for His servant, and what was best was a resounding “No” to Elijah’s fearful, unrighteous prayer for death.

Let me ask you this question: Can you not look back over your life and recall times when God said “No” to your prayer requests? And don’t you rejoice that He did? Surely it was God’s mercy that refused your plea, which would have taken you out of His perfect will and into your own wildly imperfect plan.

When we consider our prayer life from that perspective, we realize just how often we asked for what was contrary to God’s will for our lives. Too many times we desire temporal gain when God has eternal glory in store for us. How often we seek to satisfy our old, sinful nature! And, to be sure, there are times when God removes His restraining hand and we (and those around us) learn the lessons of life the hard way.

The apostle Paul asked God to remove his “thorn in the flesh”—not once, but three times—and each time God said “No” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Why? Because God knows the beginning from the end, He knows all points in between . . . and He knows what is best for us.

I pray that you will allow this word to encourage you today. The grace of “No” in your prayer life is a grace you should receive with great joy. When God says “No,” it is because He has something infinitely better in store for you. God will not give you trinkets when He has treasures multiplied with your name on them.

Ask and you will receive; whether His response to you is “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait,” you can rest assured that the outcome will ultimately be for His glory and your good. You have His Word on that truth.

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

May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else. (1 Thessalonians 3:12)

Notice the objects of the love that our Lord says is to overflow from your heart: the first object of your love is to be your family of faith, but it does not end there. Your love is also to overflow into the lives of “everyone else”—that is, those who do not share your Christian faith.

The first level of love is directed to the Lord’s people. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and we are to love first His family of faith. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord, and we declare this truth to the watching world by the way we love each other. Jesus made this crystal clear when He said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). The first century church was known for the love its members showed one another, and the 21^st century church is to be known by its love for each other too.

But our love is not to be focused solely on the family of faith. Our second level of love is to be directed to “everyone else.” This includes those who are lovable and those who are unlovable. “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus said, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” Our Lord continued, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (Matthew 5:44-47).

The Bible makes it clear that we are to love even those who treat us badly, remembering that “While we were still sinners [enemies of God], Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Love is the differentiating mark of the true disciple of Christ, and it is love that makes the greatest difference in this life. Paul wrote, “These three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

If we are to be effective in putting the Gospel on display for all the world to see, we must do it with both our lips and our lives. “Lips only” love is no love at all. Yes, we are to speak the gracious words of Jesus, but we must also do the works of Jesus. We are to be His hands and feet in a world that desperately needs His love.

But remember this too: We must not reduce love to merely a verb (an action word). To be sure, we are not to neglect this aspect of love, but if we diminish love to only a behavior, we miss the supernatural source of that love itself: Jesus Christ. As John Piper says, “Making love only a verb will likely make us Pharisees.” To know love, we must know the God of love (1 John 4:8). And to know the God of love is to know the cross of Christ. Jesus poured out His love from that cross upon all mankind, and it is this love that we are to direct to everyone else.

Our love to others is simply the overflow of God’s love to us. We are not to be cul-de-sacs of His selfless, cosmic love; rather, we are to be conduits that allow His unconditional love to flow through us to pour out on all those we come in contact with. Remember, because God is love, we increase His exposure to those who are objects of our own overflowing love.

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

Remain true to the faith. (Acts 14:22)

The dictionary definition of the word “remain” is as follows: To continue to exist, especially after other similar people or things have ceased to exist. To remain true to the faith is to not only exist but to endure, last, abide, go on, carry on, persist and prevail. And how is this to be done? By continuing to remember Whose you are and to rest in His strength, power, and mercy—not just daily, but moment by moment.

John Stott, the influential evangelical preacher, teacher, and author, observed that “The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish.” Why does this happen? Because too many Christians lose sight of the One who promised that “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The key that keeps us on the road “Remain” is to remember this promise. Jesus never shied away from telling His followers what the cost of following Him would be. Our Lord included no “fine print” in His presentations; He made it crystal clear that there would be a great cost in following Him.

The world, the flesh, and the devil line up to deliver one hardship after another to every child of God, all of them intended to turn us away from our walk with the Lord. We hear the whispered echo of the wicked words of Job’s wife: “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Why don’t you curse God and die!” (Job 2:9). And, sadly, many who started out well do just that. They allow the waves of challenge to engulf them and wash away their witness for their Lord. They forget the truth that our Lord allows these waves of challenge—not to crush His children, but rather to conform them into the image and likeness of Jesus, who was “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus was crushed so that you and I would not be!

God did not bring you this far just to leave you here. He has promised to bring you safely to the other side of the Jordan, but He never promised that the journey would be free of struggle. Hardship is the high ground to holiness. It will be walked by every child of God. But it is never walked alone. Jesus has promised to be with you every step of the way. Trust Him even when you cannot trace Him, and you will remain on the road called “Remain” for the glory of your God . . . and ultimately your eternal good.

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

He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. (Isaiah 51:3)

No matter what kind of desert or wasteland you may be facing today, whether it is in your professional or your personal life, the grace God has poured out upon you will turn your wasteland into a wonderland in His perfect time and in His perfect way. May this truth set you free to be all God is calling you to be!

All too often we see nothing before us but a great and terrible and seemingly endless wasteland. It seems as if all the world is against us, whether in sickness, sorrow, or storm winds of trial that continually blow our way. We believe we are surrounded by the sands of struggle and the unbearable heat of unholiness, and there is no oasis in sight. We feel as if we are stuck in the middle of the Sahara Desert with no way out but up. And that is exactly when our God has promised to show up and turn our wasteland into a wonderland! Our God will give us the necessary grace to get through every wasteland race.

Beloved, Scripture likens Jesus to the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys (Song of Solomon 2:1). The rose is considered to be the most beautiful and perfect of all flowers, and the same is true of our Lord Jesus. He is perfect in His nature. He is perfect in His disposition. He is perfect in His personality. He is perfect in His character. When God gave you Jesus as Lord and Savior, He turned your wasteland into a wonderland forevermore, making all things new . . . including you! This promised paradise is your unending Eden, and it can never be taken away from you.

So regardless of where this message finds you today, fix your vision not upon your circumstances but on your Christ. See the wonder of His beauty and the witness of His majesty. Know that He has promised to deliver you from every scorching sun and sea of sand. Look closely at your Christ and see the pool of clear, life-giving water that lies ahead. It is not a mirage. It is your Master calling you to come, drink, and be refreshed for the journey ahead.

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

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. (1 Timothy 4:15)

Oh, what a word of encouragement we have before us today! In giving our hearts “wholly” to our Lord, the goal is for the watching world to see progress . . . not perfection. We are to give our hearts wholly to holy things; when we do, we can be assured that our God will cause us to make progress on our spiritual path.

Timothy was a young leader in the church who might easily have felt intimidated by or inferior to those who were older and more mature. But the Word of God came to Timothy and encouraged him to give his heart wholly to his calling and not to neglect the gift of service that God had given him.

There is a biblical truth that we all must remember, and I’ve stressed it many times here: God does not call the equipped; rather, he equips those He calls and gives them everything they need to do all He is calling them to do. When we follow our calling wholeheartedly, we can be assured that progress will be made in God’s way and in God’s perfect timing.

The witness of “wholly” is one of the primary ways God has ordained for the Gospel to be put on display for the watching world. The Christian is the only Bible that many who walk in the world of unbelief will ever read. The world “reads” and studies the saints of God to see just how closely their walk matches their talk, and God promises that when we give ourselves wholly to holy things, He will prosper us with progress that will bless both us who bear witness and those who are watching.

God will tolerate no rival, nor should He. When we give ourselves less than wholly, we are giving our God a divided heart. The Bible emphasizes that we cannot serve both God and material wealth . . . another way of saying it is that we cannot serve both the Savior and the self. When we give to Him less than wholly, we simply will not make progress in holy things.

Christian, have you given yourself wholly to Jesus? If not, what is holding you back? May the confession of all our lives be that of Caleb, who God said “has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly” (Numbers 14:24).

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

My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me. (Psalm 101:6)

The world may take no notice of you, but you can be certain that the everlasting eyes of the Almighty are fixed upon the faithful . . . and that includes you! Notice that the psalm does not say God’s eyes are on the perfect; if that were the case, His glance would never extend beyond Heaven’s gate, except for those few short years our Lord walked this earth. No, God has promised to keep vigil over His faithful, those whose hearts beat for Jesus, even though they beat imperfectly.

The key to receiving the power and promise of this verse is found in God’s faithfulness to us, not our faithfulness to God. It is God who is faithful to see us as faithful, because He has clothed us in the righteous robes of our Redeemer. The apostle Paul assured us that “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). You see that it is God’s covenant faithfulness to us that keeps us both seen and secure.

Let’s go back to today’s verse and notice the result of being seen: “That they may dwell with me.” When God fixes His gaze upon the faithful, they are forever fixed in His faithful presence. We are eternally forgiven. We are eternally loved. We are eternally redeemed. We are eternally in His eternal presence and nothing can change that—not our sin . . . not Satan . . . not even death. We are told that nothing in the entire universe will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Does that not encourage you today to face whatever waves of challenge that may come up against you with strength, courage, and joy?

Regardless of where this message finds you today, remember that you are both seen and secure. And when you find yourself lacking in your faithfulness to Jesus, remember these words from our Lord: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

May that truth set us all free to desire nothing less than living lives of complete faithfulness to our Savior . . . even when we are not.

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

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)

The psalmist wasn’t making a suggestion; you have been commanded to cast your cares upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord does not expect you to bear the weight of your burdens, for they will bury you. But when you ask the Lord take your burdens from you, He will not only shoulder the burden, but He will sustain you along the way. And when your burdens are cast upon the shoulders of the Sovereign Lord, they become blessings multiplied. Remember, what would grind you into the ashes of defeat is absolutely nothing for your Lord to carry.

However, if you persist in holding on to your burdens, your Lord will not carry them for you. When we do not cast our cares upon our Lord, we are declaring that we do not take Him at His word. Clutching our cares communicates that we do not trust God to do what He said He would do for us.

The apostle Peter understood Psalm 55:22 quite well; he was moved by the Spirit to repeat virtually the same command: “Cast all your anxiety on [God] because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Peter identified the burden of anxiety, but you can substitute any number of cares that may beset you, from doubt and distress to fear and faithlessness to worry and weakness. The list of our cares is virtually endless, but so is the strength of our Lord to shoulder every one of those apprehensions.

Is there anything keeping you from casting all of your cares upon your Lord today? Remember, when you are weak, He is strong. Your Lord Jesus Christ delights in doing for you what you cannot do for yourself, and He has promised to sustain you with blessings multiplied as He bears your burdens away from you and deposits them as far as the east is from the west.

Christian, it is not a sign of strength for you to try to go it alone. Your shoulders are not broad enough to carry the weight of your burdens! And do not be like so many, who set their burdens down for a time, only to take them back up again. Lay your burdens down, once and for all, because He cares for you, and He has promised to get you through any valley of shadow you are facing. “Then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10). Now that’s a Burden-Bearer who brings blessings multiplied!

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

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

Thomas Manton (1620-1677) preached a sermon on John 3:16, titled “God’s Unspeakable Love,” in which he provided this powerful insight regarding the “why” of God’s love.

We may give a reason of other things, but we cannot give a reason of His love, God showed His wisdom, power, justice, and holiness in our redemption by Christ. If you ask why he made so much ado about a worthless creature, raised out of the dust of the ground at first, had now disordered himself, and could be of no use to him, we have an answer at hand: because he loved us. If you continue to ask, “But why did he love us?” we have no other answer but, “Because he loved us”; for beyond the first rise of things, we cannot go.

You can see in today’s passage from Deuteronomy that Moses confirmed the powerful truth of why God loves us: simply because God loves us! When I am engaged in premarital coaching, I like to ask the couple why they love each other. I’m sure you can anticipate the answers I receive as you recall the reasons why you fell in love with someone during the course of your life. But know this: whatever reasons we attach to the why we love someone—looks, intelligence, stability, career possibilities, personality, etc.—that is the place where that person will locate their identity, because that is where we have rooted our love. And as long as we are satisfied with that why, love remains.

But God’s why is completely different. There is absolutely nothing in us that causes God to love us. He loves us simply because He loves us! Do you realize how secure that makes your identity? It is not rooted in anything you are, anything you have done, or anything you ever will do for God. Your identity is fixed in the unwavering, unchanging, unconditional, love of God, who sent His Son to pay the penalty for your sin to have you as His bride for all eternity.

Later in his sermon, Thomas Manton said, “From first to last, love is so conspicuous that we cannot overlook it. Light is not more conspicuous in the sun than the love of God in our redemption by Christ.” Is this not a word of cosmic comfort to you today? You are loved with an everlasting love just because God chose to love you. Perhaps you, like the apostle Paul, will be moved by the Spirit to exult, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

One final point. If we love others because God first loved us—and we do—perhaps we ought to love others the same way God loves us . . . JUST BECAUSE!

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

“You know full well the tragedy of our city. It lies in ruins, and its gates are burned. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and rid ourselves of this disgrace!” (Nehemiah 2:17)

After the Babylonian captivity, the people of God returned to Jerusalem to begin rebuilding their lives and the holy city. But even after the Temple had been rebuilt and worship was taking place, the city walls still lay in ruins. When this was reported to Nehemiah, he heard God’s call to lead the project to rebuild the wall; and, after fifty-two days of building, the walls were completed.

This protective stone wall around the holy city is a picture of the protective spiritual wall that should encircle the people of God. However, unlike the stone wall around Jerusalem that took only fifty-two days to rebuild, the spiritual wall around the saints of God must be worked on every day of our lives.

Just like the enemies of God’s people in the time of Nehemiah, who delighted in destroying the stone walls of Jerusalem, the enemies of God’s people today delight in destroying the spiritual protection of the God’s children. The world makes every attempt to distract us from prayer, disconnect us from corporate worship, and distance us from the study of God’s Word. But, like Nehemiah, we must be diligent and determined not to let anything get in the way of our building project. Every prayer, every worship service, and every daily reading of the Bible is another protective stone added to the spiritual wall of protection around us.

Let me ask you a few questions: How is your prayer life currently? How regularly do attend worship at your church? How much time do you spend reading the Bible each day? Prayer, corporate worship, and Bible intake come under the heading of “The means of grace.” These are just some of the means God has ordained for us to receive His grace, which empowers us to live the Christian life. These means of grace (and many others) are God’s supernatural stones of protection that reinforce our resolve, fortify our faith, and raise our resistance to the temptations of the devil.

Regardless of where this finds you today, be encouraged! As I often say here, God is not in the habit of calling the equipped; rather, He equips the called. God will give you everything you need to do all He is calling you to do. You simply need to appropriate the grace He has given you for the lifelong process of building and fortifying your own spiritual wall.

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

To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. (Isaiah 9:6)

By nature, we all want to be in control of our lives. It started back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to seize control after listening to the devil’s deceitful promise of a better life. They grabbed hold of the reigns of their lives and ran right into a ditch of death.

This natural, sinful tendency is something we must battle against all the days of our lives, and the way we achieve victory is to remember the security of our Savior’s shoulder. Not only is the government upon the shoulders of our Most High King, but so too are you and I.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.” (Luke 15:4-6)

The shoulders of our King are a place of profound security. The King is ultimately responsible for the well-being of His subjects, and that includes you and me. We need not worry. We need not fret. We need not attempt to take control of the reigns of our lives, because when we are upon His shoulders we are in the place of supernatural security.

We must keep in view that our God will tolerate no rival. Either He is in control of our lives or we are in control. He will not force us to follow His plan and purpose for our lives. We must choose each day whom we will serve . . . either the self or our Savior. And make no mistake, only when we are perched upon His shoulders will we arrive at that place where we will be met in our deepest place of need.

If the government is upon His shoulders (and it is), and we too are upon His shoulders (and we are), whether we understand what He is up to or not, we simply must remain where He has placed us. We need not wonder or worry about His will in our lives. We simply bear witness to the truth that we have been lifted to a place of supernatural security and cosmic comfort.

One final point to remember: Those same shoulders that lifted you up out of the grave and gave you new life are the same shoulders that were beaten, whipped, and pressed against the raw bark of the cross. Those same shoulders that were able to bear the eternal judgment and wrath of God are the same shoulders that bear you up under every challenge this life throws your way. You are safe and you are secure because you have been placed upon His shoulders.

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