Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

[Jesus] said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” (John 21:17 ESV)

We all know what it means to grieve God. When we seek to accomplish our will rather than His will, we grieve God. When we seek to expand our kingdom rather than His kingdom, we grieve God. When we store up for ourselves treasures on earth rather than in heaven, we grieve God. But did you know that the God we grieve also grieves us?

On the night Jesus was betrayed, He was also denied. All the disciples, who had promised never to disown Him even if it meant death (Matthew 26:35), fled the Garden of Gethsemane, leaving their Lord alone with the crowd that had come to arrest Him. Just a few hours later, Peter denied ever knowing Jesus—not once, but three times, just as Jesus had said he would do.

However, after His resurrection, Jesus was intent on making sure that all the disciples, especially Peter, knew that they had been forgiven and restored to sweet fellowship with Christ. Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him—not once, but three times—which made it clear to Peter and the other disciples that He had completely forgiven Peter. Each time Peter said, “Lord, you know that I love you,” it was is if Peter was wiping away the guilty stain of one of his three “I don’t know the man!” denials. It was a glorious demonstration of God’s amazing grace, and yet Peter was also grieved in that moment, and for good reason: our Lord was doing “heart work” in the life of Peter. The grief God delivers to His people is designed to lay bare the deepest, inmost secrets of the heart that cannot be touched in any other way.

Jesus intentionally grieved Peter to grow him, and He does the same thing for us too. You have heard, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Proverbs 27:6). Well, the wounds that God inflicts on us in the form of grief are not only faithful, they are faith-building. To be sure, they hurt, and they expose deep-seated fears and failures in our lives. But the Great Physician has ordained that some soul surgery can only be accomplished by grief. And so our God leads us into the valley of grief when He knows that grief is the very best way to develop our faith.

So . . . where in your life has God been grieving you lately? Where has grief been gnawing at your heart? I say this to encourage you: those who know not the grief of God know not the God of grief. Far too many in the church today have been sold a bill of “easy believism” goods. They hear endless messages about God’s grace, but they are never taught about God’s chastening, correcting, rebuking, and restoring. Yet this is the promise for all disciples of Christ, and Scripture tells us to endure it because “God is treating you as sons” (Hebrews 12:7). The grief God brings into our lives is a good grief, because it is delivered to grow us and to prepare us to live in His loving presence for all eternity.

Today, Jesus is asking all of us, “Do you love me?” Our faithful, trusting response to the God who grieves us is one way that we can sincerely reply, “Lord, you know that I love you.”

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

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “The only one who likes change is a wet baby.” It seems like one of those proverbial truths doesn’t it? We are creatures of habit; we like to live our lives within the zones of comfort we create for ourselves, which provides us a measure of control in our lives . . . and we all like to be in control!

But for the disciple of the unchanging One, change is a way of life all the way into glory. Here are just a few examples:

• The change from natural living to spiritual living
• The change from living by sight to living by faith
• The change from living for self to dying to self
• The change from serving ourselves to serving others

These are just a few of the many changes that take place in the upside-down world our Lord Jesus created for those who answer His call. If we are going to be true followers of Christ, every aspect of what we once were must be changed.

The challenge for many Christians today is that they have an erroneous view of the goal of the Christian life. God did not save us to make us comfortable; He saved us to conform us into the image of His beloved Son, and that process involves a great deal of change . . . and that change is not comfortable! I have learned from personal experience that the greater our resistance to the change God is working in our lives, the greater the pain we will experience.

Yes, change can be painful, but it is also profitable. God is bringing us to the end of ourselves, and that end is the place where we experience true meaning and purpose in life. If we follow our natural, sinful nature, we live meaningless and purposeless lives; we live for nothing bigger than self and our own glory. True, we may help some people along the way, but we are doing it to expand our own kingdom, not the kingdom of God. But thanks be to our loving heavenly Father, He will not leave us in the condition He found us in. He will not stop short of conforming us completely to the image of Jesus, regardless of how much pain each change creates.

Have you been dealing with the pain of change lately? Don’t shrink back from it! Embrace change and be enlarged by it, because the Great Physician is working every change in your life for your good and His glory. Remember, the pain of change is the power of redemptive restoration, where our marred and scarred image of God is being restored, polished, and ultimately perfected on that day we enter into our eternal rest. Until that day, receive each change as a gift from God, who is making you just like the Unchangeable One.

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

I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! (Deuteronomy 32:3)

As a pastor who stands in the pulpit every Sunday, I am acutely aware of the difference between proclamation and persuasion when it comes to preaching the Gospel of Christ. The model that was set before us by Jesus Christ could not be clearer: proclaim the Good News to all the world and leave the results to God. Proclamation—not persuasion—is the call on every Christian.

Now, that certainly doesn’t mean that we aren’t passionate about the message we are delivering to a fallen and broken world. Could there have been anyone more passionate about preaching Christ than John the Baptist? On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached a stirring message of salvation with every bit as much passion as there was power. After his Damascus Road Experience, the apostle Paul would plead with unbelievers to receive the truths of the Gospel. Yet each one of these men knew the difference between proclamation and persuasion.

There is a role for persuasion, but that role is played by the Holy Spirit. Our calling is to simply proclaim the Good News to every creature; it is God the Holy Spirit’s job to do the persuading. You see, the Holy Spirit persuades from the inside out. He renews the mind, recalibrates the heart, and realigns the will. Salvation is all of God, and it takes place in the inner sanctum of the soul. But we have the great and powerful privilege to be instruments of salvation in His mighty right hand when we live out the Great Commission in our interactions with a fallen world.

Here is how I like to explain it when I teach others how to share the Gospel: we are not “selling” Jesus to anyone. We simply set Him before them—His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His promised return. It is not uncommon for those who are trying to sell Jesus to their audience to produce an emotional response to the “sale” and not a conversion to the Savior. Days, weeks, or months later, when the storm winds begin to blow, many fall away because they were converted to a person’s presentation, not the promise of Christ.

When you look at our Lord’s ministry, persuasion was as far removed from His words as the east is from the west. At times, it almost looked as if He was intentionally driving people away, because He never shied away from proclaiming the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Often His proclamation was couched in phrases like “Count the cost,” because He was not interested in emotional responses to the Good News. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” He was telling His true disciples that they would have to die to self in order to live for their Savior.

You and I must be willing to proclaim this truth when we share the Gospel. We practice proclamation, not persuasion, and we leave the results up to God.

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

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging water; the storm subsided, and all was calm. (Luke 8:24)

One day Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” While they were on the way and Jesus was asleep, a squall came down on the lake and their boat was being swamped.

Now, Jesus’ disciples were seasoned fishermen and had been on that lake countless times before. They had undoubtedly encountered many storms, but apparently nothing like this one. Luke records that they “were in great danger” (v. 23), and they cried out, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” Again, this was the assessment of seasoned sailors, not timid tourists. But then something extraordinary happened. Jesus spoke . . . and all was calm. Even the winds and the waves knew the voice of their Creator and they obeyed immediately.

Can the same be said about you and me? There was a time when humanity did listen to God speak. Back in the Garden of Eden, God created Adam and Eve to listen and respond to His voice and revelation. They walked together in the Garden in the cool of the day, hanging on every word God spoke to them. All was calm . . . until they decided to listen to another voice, the voice of Satan. When they did that, all creation was plunged into chaos. But even though creation is broken, it still knows His voice and responds to it immediately.

The question is, do we do the same in our brokenness?

After God speaks salvation to us, raising us from death to life, we know His voice and can respond to His calling. The challenge for us is that there are countless other voices vying for our attention and allegiance. There are voices looking for our time. There are voices looking for our talent. There are voices looking for our treasure. It is up to us to decide which voice we will listen and respond to. I hope this message today will be a source of great encouragement to you to follow the One who commands even the winds and the waves to obey Him.

There is much that we can glean from the account of Jesus calming the storm. (If you’d like, you can go to our church website and listen to the sermon I preached on this passage: “The Savior & the Storm – Story of our Lives.”) Today I’d like to draw your attention to just one thing: When the winds and the waves responded to the command of Jesus, all was calm. And when you and I respond to the command of Jesus, all is calm. Now, that doesn’t mean that there will never be storms! Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Storms have been promised. But just as the winds and the waves were suddenly calm, we too will be at peace, just as Jesus was in perfect peace as He lay sleeping in the boat while the fierce squall was raging all around Him. Obedience is the key to peace.

So . . . what is Jesus speaking into your life today? Personally? Professionally? Relationally? Will you listen to Him and follow His command? Or will you listen to the voice of another? May the witness of the winds and the waves inspire you to respond to your Redeemer; if you do, you will experience the peace that passes all understanding. You have His Word on it!

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

I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. (Hosea 2:15)

In the book of Joshua we read about the sin of Achan and the trouble it brought upon Israel. Achan sinned against the Lord and kept back for himself some of the plunder from Jericho. When he was found out, Achan was taken to the Valley of Achor and stoned to death for his rebellion against the Lord. The expression “Valley of Achor” grew into a proverbial phrase for all that causes calamity. But in our verse for today, we are given the vision of a holy hope from our God that should encourage us, regardless of the Valley of Achor that we may be facing.

All of God’s children find themselves in the Valley of Achor from time to time. Whether it is something we have done that brought us into it, or God has led us there for our good and His glory, the Valley of Achor is part of the Christian life. But the vision we are to have in the valley is not one of despair, but one of hope. To be sure, we sometimes find that God’s ways are severe, but they are always better than the way we would go ourselves. God uses everything, including our Valley of Achor, to strengthen us in our faith and grow us up into Christ.

What is it that you are facing today? Are the dark clouds of disappointment hanging over your head? Are the waves of challenge washing over your witness? Are the falling rains of your own rebellion washing away any sense of God’s loving presence? FEAR NOT! God said, “I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope!” Listen to Him. Look to Him. Lean on Him. God is conforming you into the image and likeness of His beloved Son Jesus, and He will use everything at His disposal to accomplish that . . . including the Valley of Achor . . . which He will turn into a door of holy hope that leads you into His everlasting presence.

Remember, He who began that good work in you has promised to bring that work to completion. We can go weeks without food . . . days without water . . . minutes without air. But we cannot go one moment without hope.

Jesus has promised to set before you a door of hope. But you must make the choice to walk through it. Will you?

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

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. (Job 1:9)

It was a poor and pitiful question that Satan posed to our God regarding the good and righteous man from the land of Uz. But for many Christians, this question must not only be asked, it must be answered—not with words, but with our witness. There are far too many in the church today who love the good gifts of God far more than they love God Himself. Oh, they say they love God, but they live for the “stuff” He has given to them. How do we know that? Because when the storm winds blow and their stuff is taken away, they walk away from God.

In the Parable of the Sower, these folks are represented by the rocky soil. The Word of God sprang up for a while, but when the time of testing came, they withered and walked away because they had no root (Matthew 13:20-21). They invited Jesus into their kingdom, and as long as the sky was blue, the clouds were fleecy, and the sun was shining, they were filled with great joy. But when dark clouds obscured the sun, the wind began to howl, and they found themselves buffeted by affliction, they rebelled and turned away from God.

Job was not one of these. Job’s witness gave a resounding rebuttal to Satan’s wicked question. In the midst of his season of suffering, Job never wavered in his devotion and love for God. Job did not love God because of the good gifts God had given him—gifts of health, wealth, and family; Job loved God and was completely devoted to Him simply because He is God and fully worthy of our love and devotion.

Can the same be said about you today, right where this finds you? Here is a question to ask yourself: “Is there anything in my life that, if it was to be taken away from me, would cause me to feel like life was no longer worth living?” If there is something, that thing (or person) is more important to you than the One who has given it to you. That thing has become your idol.

Never forget that the Christian is not called to a life of ease and comfort. Rather, it is a life of trial and tribulation; it is a life of storms and suffering; it is a life of experiencing one painful providence after another. This is the promise of our Lord. If we are His, should we not expect to live the kind of life He lived? Why would we expect a crown of glory when our Lord was given a crown of thorns—a crown He wore on our behalf? You see, the purpose in our pain is to purge us from the temporal pleasures of this life and ready us for the eternal pleasures of the next.

The apostle Paul said it beautifully:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

The greatest gift you have been given is the gift of God Himself. He is your prized possession, your first love, and He can never be taken away from you. Fix your eyes on Him.

Remember, it is not wrong to love the good gifts God has given to you; just don’t love any of them more than the good God who gave them to you. For, as Job said, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of our Lord!

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

I called him but he did not answer.  (Song of Songs 5:6)

That seems like a strange title for a word of encouragement, doesn’t it? How could it possibly be that no answer could ever be the best answer to the cry of our heart? The answer is . . . when that “no answer” comes to us from out of this world!

Here is what we must keep in view: when the Bible says, “Ask and you shall receive” (Matthew 7:7), we must remember that “no answer” may very well be the best possible answer for us to receive, because it means that our Lord has something better for us in the future. When Jesus says “No” or “Wait,” He is not working to frustrate our desires or punish us. Rather, He intends to bless us with something better that we did not ask for . . . perhaps something we did not even imagine!

If it pleases God to set us on the pathway of patience, you can be sure it is for our good and His glory. Our Lord knows the beginning from the end; He wrote every aspect of our story long before we drew our first breath (Psalm 139:16). He knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and how we need it to be delivered. And often what we need is His “no response,” so that we might continue to grow in our trust in Him . . . which is the very best thing we can do!

If God sent His Son to die on a cross for us so that we might have eternal life, what do you think He will deny from the registry of our request? Surely God will not withhold anything that would assist Him in the accomplishment of His purpose and His plan in our lives. When heaven seems silent, we are being sanctified by His mercy. When the golden gate seems to be locked tight when we knock, we are being conformed ever more into the image of Jesus by His grace.

When the cry of the weeping prophet Jeremiah echoes in our own heart—“You have covered yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through” (Lamentations 3:44)—we must not let our confidence in our Lord be shaken. How could we, when we know that our Lord Jesus has a bottle in which to collect our every tear? (Psalm 56:8). We have not shed even one tear that has dropped to the ground unnoticed. Every tear we have ever shed has been gently wiped away by His nail-scarred hand. When Jesus said He would never leave us or forsake us, He meant what he said!

Be encouraged today, beloved. Your prayers may seem to return to you with “no answer,” but that is not because they have gone unheard. It is because the One who loved you enough to take your nails, your crown of thorns, and your cross intends to bless you with an answer far better—whether it is presently delivered to you as “No” or “Wait.” When we call to Jesus and believe He has not answered, that is only because we haven’t heard what we wanted to hear. But you can trust that He has heard, and that He fully intends to give you the best answer. As He said to His disciples:

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

Keep calling on your loving heavenly Father, Christian, knowing that with every call He is conforming you more and more into the likeness of His Son.

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

For you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. (Malachi 4:2)

Oh, what a word of encouragement we have before us today! The promise is for all those who revere the name of the Most High God; in response to their reverence, God will shine His light of grace upon them, and they will go forth joyfully, frolicking like well-fed calves released from their stalls after a long winter. The reverence of our Redeemer will bring us multiple rewards of both healing and health that will not only meet us in our deepest place of need but will far surpass anything we could have ever imagined.

Our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is rightly compared to the sun, for from Him and in Him is the eternal Light of all creation. In fact, the revelation of John from the Isle of Patmos indicates that Christians are “clothed with the sun” (Revelation 12:1). It is Christ’s glorious, righteous robe that adorns us, not only for our justification, but for our sanctification also . . . and ultimately, when we cross the Jordan, for our glorification as well. Being clothed in the robe of His righteousness brings healing to all that is broken in us, and that healing sends us out as happy, healthy, well-fed calves to jubilantly witness for the advancement of His kingdom and His glory.

Those who revere His name are led beside still waters and into green pastures; and when we enter that season when we go forth into the valley of the shadow of death, we shall not fear anything, because the Almighty will be with us every step of the way.

But notice the promise for those who revere His name: We will frolic like well-fed calves. Isn’t the picture of that promise particularly encouraging to you today? We will exult in the freedom that comes to us through faith in Jesus. This freedom is not from an earthly stall, but from our bondage to sin, Satan, and death.

The witness of well-fed calves is rooted in the joy of knowing that we have been set free from everything that enslaved us in the past. We have been set free from the stall of the sin that so easily entangles us. We have been cleansed from all unrighteousness by the blood of the Lamb of God, and, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to live a life that is glorifying to God and good for us and all those with whom we come in contact.

Regardless of where this finds you today, rejoice in your redemption, knowing that you have been raised from death to life. Go forth joyfully into God’s perfect plan and purpose for your life, even in all your imperfections, knowing that God has nailed every sin and shortcoming to the cross, freeing you to frolic like a well-fed calf as you witness for the glory and grace of our Savior.

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

Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

As a pastor, I encounter far too many Christians who witness for their Lord by sharing the love of Christ like a well, rather than a reservoir. Let me explain the difference; and I hope you will be encouraged to understand that you have been redeemed to be a reservoir.

Imagine that both a well and a reservoir are filled with the life-giving water that is the love of Christ. The difference between the two truly makes all the difference in the world when it comes to the impact we make in our walk with Jesus. With a well, others must go to the time and labor to receive the love of Christ that lies deep within. They must lower the bucket, fill it, and pull it back up to the top in order to be refreshed. But with a reservoir, the love of Christ not only fills the reservoir, it fills it to overflowing and continually gushes into the lives of all those who come near it!

We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19), and that love should infuse and permeate everyone we meet, with no effort required on their part. Because the love of God in Christ Jesus flows to us, it must also flow through us as a testimony to the truth that we are His. People should not have to labor to discover the love of Christ in us; it should spill out of us into their lives. It should be that others can’t help but experience the love of Christ from us because that love is so much a part of our lives.

We are redeemed to be a reservoir of the Redeemer’s love . . . and not only to those whom we find easy to love. We must always remember that our Lord loved us while we were still His enemies (Colossians 1:21), and that amazing love and grace of Christ must move us to love even those whom we would otherwise prefer to have nothing to do with. What grace is at work when we love only the lovable and those who love us? As Jesus said, do not even unbelievers do that? (Matthew 5:47). It is only when we let our love overflow toward those who are unfriendly and disagreeable and even openly hostile that we know for certain that we are truly new creations in Christ.

So . . . which term best describes you as an ambassador of the Almighty: a reservoir or a well? Does it take a great deal of effort for those around you to experience the love of Christ that lies deep within you? Must they do all the work in order to taste and see that the Lord who lives within you is truly good? Or are all those who come anywhere near you being drenched by the divine love that has filled you to overflowing?

Here is a helpful reminder: Consider all the times you have been less than lovable to your Lord, yet He poured out no less love on you. Perhaps you denied Him like Peter, not just three times, but more times than you can count? Maybe you were like Martha, far too “busy” to sit as His feet and learn from Him? Is it possible that you, like Thomas, found yourself in a season of doubt? Whatever it was that made you unloving and unlovely, far from experiencing less of your Lord’s love, you were filled to overflowing, because His love for you is as unconditional as it is unending.

Remember, there are many tasks you can perform and many professions you can pursue that do not require you to display any signs of love. But you cannot be a Christian without the love of Christ flowing through you; that is because you have been redeemed to be a reservoir of the Redeemer’s love.

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

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

You may remember the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids trilogy, which portrayed the misadventures of inventor Wayne Szalinski and his electromagnetic shrink ray. Whatever the ray pointed at shrank down to microscopic size . . . including people.

Did you know that sin does the very same thing in the life of the believer? Let’s take a look.

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God’s Word in the Garden of Eden, here is what happened: they shrank the size of their lives down to the size of their lives. Our first parents were created by God for God to serve God as His cultural caretakers, and they were commissioned to expand the borders of their lives to the boundaries of God’s kingdom.

Tragically, Adam and Eve chose the way of sin; instead of living for the kingdom of God, they began living for their own kingdom. Sin caused Adam and Eve to shrink their focus from God’s grand plan and purpose for their lives down to their own puny purpose—which was pleasing themselves. Their greatest concern was no longer for the majestic creation God had given them; now their greatest concern was for the tiny course of their lives.

Sin is Satan’s electromagnetic shrink ray. Every time we sin, we shrink in our service to our Savior. There are countless “shrink stories” in the Bible that make it perfectly clear just how destructive sin is in shrinking our lives.

• Abraham shrank his life when he refused to believe the promise of God and passed off his wife as his sister to save his own skin.
• Jacob shrank his life when he schemed to acquire the birthright of his brother Esau.
• Joseph’s brothers shrank their lives when they sold Joseph into slavery because of jealousy.
• Moses shrank his life when he tried to free his people in his own strength by killing the Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave.
• Peter shrank his life when he denied knowing Jesus three times on the night our Lord was betrayed.

If we pause for a moment, we can think of numerous times when we have shrunk the size of our lives down to the size of our lives and began living for self rather than the Savior. When we do that, we find living in community with others incredibly difficult and living in contentment with ourselves virtually impossible. When self is on the throne of our lives, we have effectively squeezed our Savior out.

So how do we avoid Satan’s shrink ray? We must remember whose we are and what we have been put here to do. As image-bearers of the Most High God, we are His by creation; for those of us who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we are twice His by re-creation. We are not our own, we have been bought at the highest price of all: the precious blood of Christ. When we remember whose we are, we will remember what we have been put here to do: to live for the glory of God, not our own selfish pursuits. We will never shrink ourselves when we seek the glory of “our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope” (2 Thessalonians 2:16).

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