Author Archives: Pastor Tommy

When was the last time you found yourself in the bottom of a pit?  Did you dig the pit for yourself and then jump in?  Or were you thrown into a pit by someone close to you, like Joseph was by his brothers?  There is a plethora of “pits” available to us:

• The pit of debt
• The pit of shattered dreams
• The pit of broken promises
• The pit of failed relationships
• The pit of company layoffs
• The pit of sickness or disease
• The pit of being betrayed
• The pit of persecution—gossip, slander, false accusations

The bad news is that the pits of life are truly endless; the good news is that no pit is too wide or too deep that God cannot rescue you from it.  David penned these lovely words:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

(Psalm 40:1-3 NIV)

David had personal experience in going from the pit to the palace.  How was it possible for him?  Two reasons rise to the surface.

1. The psalmist cried out

We were not created to go through life alone.  Our divine design in creation is dependence on God.  Everything in creation is dependent upon the Creator.  Made by God, for God, we were never created to live apart from God, whether in seasons of plenty or want, sickness or health, harvest or hard providence.  God not only encourages us to come boldly before the throne of grace, He expects us to cry out to Him along the way.  The writer of Hebrews exhorted, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).  Our God invites and delights in taking us from the pit to the palace. 

2. The psalmist waited patiently

David knew better than to rush through the pit.  He knew that God is working every slimy pit of providence for two reasons: God’s glory and our ultimate good.  He knew the mud and mire, when shaped in the hands of the Master, would eventually be transformed into His masterpiece.  God inspired David to write these words of exalted praise in Psalm 31:3—“You are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me.”

Notice with me that the firm place where the psalmist stood is the same firm place set out for you and me; His name is Jesus Christ.  Christ is the Rock of our salvation.  Paul wrote that during the Exodus the people of Israel “drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them,” and then clearly explained that “the Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). 

Christ is our everything—in both salvation and sanctification.  He is the Author and Finisher of our faith and all points in between.  What God begins He completes, and that means you and me!  He will not leave us in any pit we are currently facing . . . even those we dig with our own sinful hands.  He has promised to deliver us out of every pit and in the process give us a “new song and a hymn of praise to our God.”

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

“The godless in heart harbor resentment . . .” (Job 36:13 NIV).

The dictionary defines resentment as a feeling of indignant displeasure or persistent ill will at something regarded as wrong, insult, or injury.  We’re even provided with a few examples of resentment in action: “He’s filled with resentment at his boss . . . She expressed her resentment of the new policies.”  Scripture tells us that resentment is so destructive that it “kills a fool” (Job 5:2).  So how are we to deal with the reality and reach of resentment when it rears its ugly head in our own lives?

First, we must understand that the Christian life calls us to overcome obstacles.  Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Regardless of where you are in your life right now, Christ has promised to take you to the other side of it.

But along the way you have also been promised trials and troubles, struggles and storms.  Paul assured us that “It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Philippians 1:29 NIV).  Scripture is telling us that not only our saving faith in Jesus Christ is a gift from God, but so is much of our suffering!  However, because we have been united to Christ, we can have peace in facing every problem.  In this world we will have trouble, but take heart!  Christ has overcome those troubles . . . even our problem with resentment!

So where in your life have you been feeling resentful?  Know this: complaining and a critical spirit often results in a growing feeling of resentment. 

Here’s one of my personal traps: choosing the “wrong” check-out line at the grocery store.  Even after painstakingly scouring the landscape to make sure I am in the shortest line (even using my children as scouts and/or placeholders), I inevitably find myself stuck behind someone who forgot an item and has to go to the very back of the store to retrieve it, or who feels compelled to summon a manager to dispute a twenty-cent price discrepancy. I immediately feel my blood pressure skyrocketing and I begin to resent this disruption of my careful planning.  In the end, I play the part of the slowly dying fool! 

And I know I’m not the only person who does this!  One of my most beloved seminary professors confessed during a sermon that “Hell, for me, would be one long bank line.”  I could only heartily laugh in complete agreement!

The reach of resentment takes the small stuff of life and blows it up into major matters.  Resentment moves us from being thankful for all we have received into a sinful, poisonous, self-centered spirit of entitlement.  This provides a perfect foothold for Satan to sink comfortably back onto soft pillows on the throne of our lives—a throne that should only and always be inhabited by Christ!  Once Satan is in position, he busily engages in handing us all the wedges we need to drive between our resentment and the relationships that truly matter.  Countless relationships in the church, home, and workplace have been ruined by running aground on the ruinous rocks of resentment.  

• We resent the career advancement of a co-worker as we are passed over once again.
• We resent the marriage proposal to a close friend as we continue walking faithfully in our singleness.
• We resent the birth announcement as our home remains childless.
• We resent the noticeable weight loss of a family member as we waddle into the holidays bigger than ever.
• We resent the anniversary celebration that reminds us of our painful divorce.

The next time you sense those ugly stirrings of resentment, pause and focus on Jesus.  Allow Him to replace your resentment with His gift of repentance, and remember that His grace is indeed sufficient to meet our every need . . . even overcoming the reach of resentment!

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

Who is Number One in your life?  Now, before you say God, take a moment to prayerfully consider who is actually on the throne of your life in every area.  There are of course, only two choices: Jesus or you.  So how do you know who you are looking out for in every area of life?  1 John 3:16 provides the answer:

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

When Jesus is on the throne of our lives, we live lay-down-your-life-for-others lives, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  When self is on the throne of our lives, we never rise above looking out for number one and wanting to be first.  This was the problem with Diotrehpes.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will have nothing to do with us.  So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, gossiping maliciously about us.  Not satisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers.  He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.  (3 John 9-10)

Pastor Scotty Smith wrote, “To have one’s name recorded in the Bible is one thing.  But to be chronicled there as someone who loved to be first isn’t a very attractive proposition at all.  I have no clue what was going on in Diotrephes’ life that made him disrespectful of the apostle John and so divisive in the community.  But his story certainly invites me to look at mine.” 

When was the last time you took a close look at your life?  The Bible makes it clear that this is something we must do on a regular basis.  If we are to live lives modeled after our Master, looking out for Number One will mark our lives . . . and His name is Jesus Christ!

If Jesus had desired to be first, He never would have left heaven to come to earth.  He never would have given up continual praise for constant persecution.  He never would have accepted the cross when He had the crown from all eternity.  In laying down His life for others, Jesus has given us the perfect model of how we are to live as His disciples.  He never sought the chief seats, the front of the line, or the head of the class.  Paul put it this way: 

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (Philippians 2:5-8)

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, refused to consider equality with God something He needed to hold on to tightly.  He was driven by His mission of laying down His life for His people.  Because He focused so much on glorifying the Father, He was never concerned with glorifying Himself.  May God forbid that we would seek a crown of glory when the King of kings and Lord of lords chose a crown of thorns on our behalf!

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

In prayerfully considering how to start off September, I thought a little encouragement regarding trusting in God would serve us all well.  If you are a regular reader, you know that I often quote Charles Spurgeon who is one of my all-time favorite teachers.  I generally read through his Morning and Evening devotional and found his September 1^st devotional really ministered to me.  I pray it will do the same for you.  By the way, if you do not have this devotional, I highly recommend it.  My version is based on the King James Version of the Bible, “Trust in Him at all times” Psalm 62:8.

Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life; we ought to have faith in God for our earthly affairs as well as for our heavenly business.  It is only as we learn to trust in God for the supply of all our daily need that we shall live above the world.  We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God, who worketh hiteherto, but in the devil who is the father of idleness.  We are not to be imprudent or rash; that were to trust chance, and not the living God, who is a God of economy and order.  Acting in all prudence and uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon the Lord at all times. 

Let me commend to you a life of trust in God in temporal things.  Trusting in God, you will not be compelled to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich.  Serve God with integrity, and if you achieve no success, at least no sin will lie upon your conscience.  Trusting God, you will not be guilty of self-contradiction.  He who trusts in craft, sails this way to-day, and that way the next, like a vessel tossed about by the fickle wind; but he that trusteth in the Lord is like a vessel propelled by steam, she cuts through the waves, defies the wind, and makes one bright silvery straightforward track to her destined haven. 

Be you a man with living principles within; never bow to the varying customs of worldly wisdom.  Walk in your path of integrity with steadfast steps, and show that you are invincibly strong in the strength which confidence in God alone can confer.  Thus you will be delivered from anxious care, you will not be troubled with evil tidings, your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord.  How pleasant to float along the stream of providence!  There is no more blessed way of living than a life of dependence upon a covenant-keeping God.  We have no care, for He careth for us; we have no troubles, because we cast our burdens upon the Lord. 

I think you will agree that there was no way for me to improve on that devotional.  There is no better way to begin another month than to cast all of our cares upon our Lord.  So much did He care for us that He refused to save Himself so that He could by dying, save us.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

(2 Corinthians 12:7-8 NIV)

The dictionary defines a thorn as any of various sharp, spiny protuberances; a prickle that causes sharp pain, irritation, or great discomfort.  But if you’re older than about age 4 and have spent any time at all outside, you probably have a more “piercing” memory of the definition of thorn!  We have a bush in our yard that, no matter how careful I am when pruning it, sticks me a few times before I’m done.     

Commentaries offer a number of suggestions as to what Paul’s “thorn” in 2 Corinthians 12:7 actually was; the possibilities range from bad eyesight to a physical ailments to severe persecution.  They all agree, however, that whatever this “thorn” actually was, it was extremely painful for Paul.

Paul was no ivory tower preacher.  Throughout his ministry he faced severe persecution and calamities. In this same epistle to the Corinthians, Paul described the dangers and difficulties he faced in bringing the Gospel to the nations. Paul had endured:

 . . . far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

(2 Corinthians 11:23-29)

Paul had suffered in ways that you and I can only imagine—stoned and left for dead in Lystra (Acts 14:19), actually spending a day and a night drifting in the open sea, perhaps clinging to a piece of wreckage, praying for rescue.  For such a man to cry out to God—not once, but three times—that the Lord might remove this “thorn” from him . . . Paul had to be in anguish!  The thorn was, after all, a messenger of Satan, and the cruel adversary of the saints must have hated Paul with a vicious fury that is reserved for very few men.

What about you? Are you experiencing the stabbing pain of a thorn? They come in all shapes and sizes.  Do any of these describe your current existence?

• Regret over the past
• Fear about the future
• Sickness or wasting disease
• Rebellious children
• In-laws who act like outlaws
• Shattered dreams
• Broken promises
• Unpleasant or unreasonable boss
• Unfriendly co-worker
• Unemployment, bankruptcy, or simply “too much month at the end of the money”

 I’m sure you can recall many more thorns that have tested your faith.  They affect us physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.  They frequently rob us of our joy . . . but this is not for you! This does not have to be the ultimate testimony of the thorns in your life!

The other day I was talking with my friend, the headmaster of Westminster Academy, Dr. Leo Orsino.  He said something that really struck me and inspired today’s blog, “The test you are facing IS your testimony!”

So . . . do you have a thorn? Are you making that trial your testimony about the all-sufficient power of Christ?  Have you taken your pain and laid it before the throne of grace, as Paul did? 

Persistent prayer is a very good thing; Scripture commands us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  But notice that there was a time for Paul to pray and there was also a time for Paul to press on, regardless of the thorn.  The key to Paul’s ability to triumph through his trial was his relationship with Jesus Christ.  Because Paul’s life was shaped by his Savior, he was able to rise above the thorn’s stabbing pain and serve God with freedom, fervor, and faithfulness.   Because his life was oriented around his Savior, he was able to embrace the Lord’s response to his persistent prayers.

I am not a big fan of paraphrased Scriptures, but I do love J. B. Phillips’ rendering of 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

[God’s] reply has been, “My grace is enough for you: for where there is weakness, my power is shown the more completely.” Therefore, I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. I can even enjoy weaknesses, suffering, privations, persecutions and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For my very weakness makes me strong in him.

Our thorns—our troubles and trials—are designed to dismantle all of our idols, including self-sufficiency and autonomy.  Our thorns weaken us, and in our weakness we are driven to the Cross for the only power that will sustain us.  Christ’s steadfast love, mercy, and power are made manifest in our powerlessness.  Your thorn is one of God’s greatest graces your life!

Do you see it?  The test you are facing is your testimony of God’s power working in your life!  Every thorn is an opportunity to glorify God.  And God’s purpose for Paul’s thorn was the same as it is for yours.  Just like our first parents back in the Garden, we all tend toward self-sufficiency and autonomy.  Whether we are conscious of it or not, we act as if we embrace the lines of the haughty humanist anthem: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”  God allows the thorns to remind us that we were made by Him and for Him, and our divine design demands our need of Him.

We were never created nor intended to find our identity and significance outside of God.  God is always to be the center and circumference of our lives, and He will send as many “thorns” as we need to live out this truth.  When we invite Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives we will be able to say with Paul, “I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ.”

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

Here is a question that is not uncommon among Christians: How do I know if I am truly repentant?  To be sure, this is a question that demands an answer—not from man, but from sacred Scripture.  We will use Acts 20:21 as our foundational verse, in which the Apostle Paul declared that he never shrank back from “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This verse seems to suggest that there is a repentance that is not toward God.  So before we see what repentance toward God is, let’s see what it is not.  It is most certainly not any of the feelings that spring forth from being found out for our sin.  Some, when they are found out, are overwhelmed with a sense of shame because of the judgment and condemnation they receive from their fellow man.  Others are filled with a sense of regret over the consequences of their sinful behavior, such as divorce or bankruptcy.  Still others are gripped with fear over what might happen to them in the future as a result of sin that has surfaced in their lives. 

In most cases, the individuals who experience these emotions would have gone further in and further down into their sin if they had not been found out.  They are not truly sorry for the sin; they are simply unhappy about the consequences of their transgressions; their sorrow never rises like smoke from the altar to the throne of grace.

Let me make this perfectly clear: writhing under the lash of the wages of sin is not repentance toward God.  It is only repentance toward yourself.  This is a repentance that stings, but it never sings, because there is no corresponding forgiveness from our Father in heaven.  True repentance, which is turning away from sin (180 degrees) and toward the Savior,  is rooted in sorrow for the sin we have committed, which is always an affront to the One against whom we have committed our sin. We cannot simply be sorry about the wages our sin has earned for us.  Repentance that stings and sings is always directed toward God and it always rises toward heaven, far above the earthly, self-centered realm of shame, scandal, and sorrow. 

Jesus painted a portrait of repentance toward God in bold, vivid brush strokes in the Parable of the Prodigal Son returning to his father (Luke 15:11-32).  Because the prodigal knew his sin was primarily directed toward his father, it was his father to whom he must go to seek forgiveness and find peace for his soul.  Listen to the cry of a heart filled with a godly sorrow: “I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son’” (Luke 15:18-19).  Here is the repentance that both stings and sings.  The Prodigal embodies deep soul conviction, and his stinging sorrow was directed toward the One whom he had ultimately committed his sin against—“I have sinned against heaven and before you.”

And yet such repentance will always sing, because of God’s promised response to it. 

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.  And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to celebrate’” (Luke 15:20-24).

David, who knew much of godly sorrow and the forgiveness of God, exulted, “I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music” (Psalm 101:1).

True, biblical repentance stings greatly because of the holy perfections of the One whose perfect Law we have violated.  And yet we can sing for joy, because that same perfectly holy God also provided the means for eternal forgiveness and joy: through faith in Jesus Christ.

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

Restlessness is no respecter of persons.  Everyone is born restless.  Since the fall of Adam and Eve, every one of us has been born a sinner at enmity with God, and restlessness is the result of sin in our hearts.  Created by God, for God, we are restless until we find our rest in Him, as St. Augustine so rightly said. 

However, those who are born again are not to be marked by restlessness.  How is this possible?  How do we still the relentlessly restless spirit that indwells all of us?  I’m glad you asked!  The answer is found in Scripture.

And [Jesus] said . . . “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Restlessness is replaced by relationship, both with God (vertical) and with others (horizontal).  The more we invest in our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with others, the less restless we become.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in perfect relationship from eternity past to eternity future.  As image bearers of God, we are made for relationship. 

Quickly—can you name the first time in Scripture when the Lord said that something was not good?  Would you say that this surely must have occurred after the Fall?  Throughout the days of creation, we read that “God saw that the light was good,” “And God saw that it was good,” and so on, seven times, “It was good . . . it was good.”

And then, jarringly, in Genesis 2:18, we read of what is not good: “It is not good that the man should be alone,” the Lord announced.  We are made for relationship, and when we fall short in this area for whatever reason—career advancement, social status, achieving and accumulating—we grow restless, because we are denying our divine design. 

The world will tell you that your restlessness is rooted in your lack and need.  Fill your lack and satisfy your need and your restlessness will be gone.  As soon as you find the right relationship, get that promotion, land that new job, close the next deal, fit back into the clothes that have been hanging in the back of your closet since graduating high school, or move into a better neighborhood, you will be at peace, the world assures us.  Don’t you believe it! 

Peace is only to be found in a Person, and His name is Jesus Christ.  The closer you grow in your relationship to Him the more you will be at peace.  The more at peace you become the more you will be able to invest your life into the lives of others.  When we look for fulfillment in someone or something other than Christ, we will be forever restless.  Nothing in the created world was designed to do what only Christ can do for us.  Investing in both the vertical and horizontal relationships will bring the deepest kind of fulfillment that can be experienced. 

To love God and others is to love service more than status.  In putting others first, you are filling a “soul hole” that can be filled in no other way.  Give yourself to God.  Give yourself to others.  Relationship is the key that will unlock the chains of restlessness forever. 

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

Have you ever thought of yourself as a coach?  If you’ve ever coached an athletic team, you’ll reply in the affirmative, but what if you never filled that role?  Why would I call every Christian a coach?

• Because David said so under the inspiration of the Spirit: “I will teach transgressors your ways…” (Psalm 51:13).
• Jesus’ Great Commission to the church is a command to be coaches!  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” He said, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).
• The apostle Paul instructed Christians to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom . . .” (Colossians 3:16).

So, Coach . . .  how have you been doing coaching (teaching) others the ways of God?

There is a great disconnect in the church of Jesus Christ today between the pew and the pulpit.  Our pews are filled with people who come to watch a Sunday morning “show,” go out to lunch and enjoy a hearty meal of roast pastor, and then get on with the business of living life, believing that it is the minister’s job to do all the coaching (teaching) to the body of Christ.  They could not be more thoroughly mistaken!  As you’ve seen, Ministry is not a work to be left to the “professional” minister.  Ministry—coaching and instructing and exhorting—is expected for everyone who has been raised from death to life.  This truth is unpacked through the phrase “EVERY MEMBER A MINISTER!”  Every Christian is a coach and is given all the grace he or she needs to fulfill this all-important role in the body of Christ.

You see, before David said, “I will teach transgressors,” he asked God to “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”  David’s words richly reveal that God’s grace and mercy in our lives is the foundation from which our coaching is to be delivered.   The grace we have received in our times of great need qualifies every Christian to teach and encourage others, in turn, during their time of great need.  Our own rescue is the platform upon which we stand as we coach others in how to receive their rescue.  Jesus commanded us to go and tell others what God has done for us; this makes every Christian a coach!   

The best coaches share their life stories as teaching tools of transformation.  My mentor, Clark, has been doing this ever since God brought him into my life twelve years ago.  His stories of God’s rescuing grace have inspired and instructed me to continue to “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).  Clark has done much more than simply teach me about God and His grace, as important as that is; Clark taught me about his personal experience of God and His grace.  He never stopped with providing a definition of grace; he always gave me a demonstration of grace.  

God wants to use your story to shape the lives of those He is calling you to coach.  Your story is worth far more than any kind of formal training.  Please understand me: I am not minimizing the importance of solid training in theology and evangelism.  However, I am maximizing story-telling by every Christian.  Your story fits into His story, and every time you share your story you are sharing His story of love, mercy, and grace. 

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

This Sunday Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church will come together for ONE combined service.  Those who prefer a “contemporary” service and those who favor a “traditional” service will unite as ONE under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  God never designed His demonstration community to be segregated in any way, especially as it relates to particular styles of music.  “There is one body and one Spirit,” Paul explained to the Ephesians, “—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6) . . . and there is to be one demonstration community.  This is the clear teaching of the Scriptures and the vision of my good friend and pastor, Tullian Tchividjian. 

Regrettably, we see evidences of segregation throughout our culture—race, age, and socioeconomic status being the three most obvious.  But when this “tribal” mind-set, as Tullian has called it, pokes its haughty face into our congregations, we deny God’s divine design for His demonstration community to the world.  God has made us one in Christ, and we do violence to our calling when we erect walls to keep those who are like us in and those who are unlike us out.  Tullian wrote in Unfashionable:

Most churches would agree that any segregation arising from racial or economic bigotry runs contrary to the nature of the gospel and should not be tolerated.  But there’s another segregation, perhaps more subtle, that many churches today have embraced.  Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches and worship services target specific age groups to the exclusion of others.  They forget that, according to the Bible, the church is an all-age community, and instead they organize themselves around distinctives dividing the generations: Busters, Boomers, Millennials, Generations X, Y, and Z. Many churches offer a traditional service for the tribe who prefer older music and a contemporary service for the tribe who prefer newer music. 

I understand the good intentions behind these seemingly harmless efforts, but they evidence a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the gospel.  We’re not only feeding toxic tribalism; we’re also saying the gospel can’t successfully bring these two different groups together.  It’s a declaration of doubt about the unifying power of God’s gospel.  Generational appeal in worship is an unintentional admission that the gospel is powerless to join together what man has separated.  Building the church on stylistic preferences or age appeal (whether old or young) is just as contrary to the reconciling effect of the gospel as building it on class, race, or gender distinctions. 

We disregard the divine design of our one demonstration community when we divide our congregations along any arbitrary lines that are drawn by society.  The end result is a functional denial of the unifying power of the gospel, declaring to all who enter our doors that the Word of God has no authority in the church of Jesus Christ!

Only when we see ourselves for what we truly are—undeserving sinners receiving unconditional grace from an unobligated Savior—will we begin dismantling the artificial and ungodly barriers we have erected around our own little kingdoms.  When the gospel is truly instructing and shaping our lives, self-protection will be replaced by self-sacrifice.  We will lift others up by laying our lives down.  We will forsake our atrophied agendas for God’s awesome assignments.  God did not save us and bring us into the body of Christ because of all the good we can gain from it, inasmuch as there is great good to be experienced; He quickened our hard hearts and called us into His community because of all the good we can give to it!

As long as we view our salvation as being all about us, we ignore our calling to live for the benefit and edification of our brother and sisters in Christ.  We will come to church because of what we can get out of it, not looking for what we can pour into it.  We will worship the god we want rather than the God who is.  We will be characterized by a mind-set of consumption rather than a heart of contribution.  The songs we sing will matter more to us than the One to whom we should be singing!    

When God unites us to Christ He unites us to one another.  As Steve Brown said so well, “All those who belong to Jesus belong to all those who belong to Jesus.”  God forbid that societal segregation would characterize our sanctuaries!

In His last prayer with His disciples, just hours before His arrest and execution, Jesus appealed to His Father, “I do not pray for these [the apostles] alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21, NKJV).  And the truth of these words are the focus of this Sunday at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, as we gather to be ONE demonstration community, living out practically what we already are positionally. We will join together to “offer up a sacrifice of praise to God,” as the Scripture commands, “that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

I can’t say it any better than my beloved pastor did in Unfashionable:

As we live together in a way that’s consistent with who we’ve been remade to be, we become a blessing to the world by showing it how sweet life can be in a community of individuals who love one another, care for one another, defer to one another, are patient with one another, and serve one another. The world will take notice of a community of men and women who refreshingly and joyfully bear one another’s burdens and who actively look to lay down their lives for others in need because Jesus laid down his life for them.

This is the DNA of the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever heard the term, “The rhythm of life”?  It is a phrase that sums up life on this side of the grave since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden.  The wise preacher put it this way,

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Prior to the Fall, the cadence of creation did not include all that we find in the valleys of this life.  Life was perfect and lived in paradise.  And one day, when Jesus returns, He will make all things new, and the valleys of a creation that groans, waiting to be set free from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:20-23), will be eliminated forever.  In that day, all who have placed their trust in Christ will enjoy an eternal “mountaintop experience”—rejoicing in living in the presence and the glory of our Redeemer.

But until that blessed day arrives, we will all plod through numerous valleys on the journey to the Celestial City.  The peaks of peace and planting, love and laughter, dancing and embracing are always welcome.  Quite naturally, we prefer the peaks to the valleys.  But in a creation that has been subjected to futility because of the willful, flagrant rebellion of our ancestors, valleys are inevitable.  Indeed, those valleys have been ordained! So the question we must continually ask and answer is: “How well do I deal with the valleys of life?”  What kind of God do those around you see when you’re in the valley? Do they see a God of grace? A God of humility and worship?

Job, after experiencing catastrophe that was more difficult to endure than his own death, fell on the ground and worshipped the Sovereign Lord of all. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away,” Job rightly acknowledged; “blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21). Is that what others see in you during your valley experience? Or . . . is it something much less?

We sin our way into some of life’s valleys.  The cosmic rebellion of Adam and Eve plunged all of creation into darkness and decay.  Our parents were designed for peak living only.  However, when they believed Satan’s lie that they were missing out on something better, times of trial and trouble entered into the seasons of life.  We can all recall those valleys that we willfully entered, and the accompanying pain and sorrow that left vivid impressions on the canvas of our lives. 

There are other valleys that are the hard providences delivered by a good and gracious God.  These trials are designed to bring us to the end of ourselves and grow us up in our faith.  God ordains these valleys for our good and His glory.  God knows that continually living on the mountaintops would only encourage our natural desire for autonomy and self sufficiency.  Mountaintops can seduce us into removing the Master from the throne of our lives and believing that our satisfaction, meaning, and purpose is located in a place, rather than in the person of Christ.

God leads us into valleys, not because He is unable to protect us from them, but because He knows we need to walk in them!  God knows that mountaintop joy is fleeting, and He wants to give us real, lasting joy.  Mountaintops were never designed to provide us with that which only the Master can ultimately give.  And because this is true, God will inevitably intervene whenever we seek to construct our own personal Towers of Babel, which we would regard as monuments to our personal excellence and worth.

Do you recall Nebuchadnezzar’s great fall? He looked out from the roof of his royal palace and his heart was moved to worship . . . himself! “Is not this great Babylon,” he exulted, “which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” WHAM! “While the words were still in the king’s mouth,” the Lord announced that Nebuchadnezzar would be munching on grass like a cow! Was God simply “getting even” with Nebuchadnezzar for his self-glorification? No, this humiliation would last for a season of time, until the king knew “that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” And when Nebuchadnezzar raised his eyes to heaven and gave glory to God, both his sanity and his kingdom were restored to him. You can read all about it in the fourth chapter of Daniel.

Valleys are not delivered by a vengeful God.  They are delivered by a loving, merciful God who knows that we are prone to continue to believe the lie of the Garden—that we can find fulfillment apart from our relationship with Him.  We need to be rescued from our mountaintops by any and all means necessary, so God sends us down into valleys.

One final thought: regardless of the valley you may be experiencing, you do not walk it alone.  God is with you every step of the way.  “Where shall I go from your Spirit?” David cried. “Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (Psalm 139:7-8). That, beloved, is the ultimate mountaintop experience for anyone! 

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