Jesus told [Thomas], “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
I remember playing “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” as a child. With a blindfold securely in place, the player had to completely trust the one who was giving him or her directions that would lead the way to the prize. Our faith can be a lot like this: We must totally trust in a God we cannot see, even during those times when we cannot trace His hand.
We aren’t challenged in our trusting when the sky is blue, the clouds are fleecy, and the sun is brightly shining. No, the challenge comes on those days when the storm winds are blowing and the waves of challenge are battering you time and time and time again. Some storms assail us because of foolish things we do, but some storms simply come, catching us completely by surprise. Those are the seasons when we must remember Who is leading us every step of the way through every storm we face, and that is when we call on the One who walked on the water and calmed the winds and the waves simply by saying, “Peace! Be still!” (Mark 4:39).
Regardless of where this message finds you today, no matter what you have been going through lately, continue trusting Jesus even when you cannot trace Him, no matter how severe the storm that is assailing you. Remember, nothing happens to us that does not first pass through His nail-scarred hands. God sends every storm for two reasons: Our eternal good and His eternal glory. Storm winds cause us to deepen our dependence on Jesus, driving the roots of our faith deeper and deeper into the soil of the sanctified life, making us that much stronger for the next storm, which may already be looming on life’s horizon.
You have not seen Him . . . but trust that He loves you. Hold fast to His promise that He will never leave you. Blessed are those who have not seen Him and yet have believed.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Every good and perfect gift is from above. (James 1:17)
A sense of entitlement has enslaved our contemporary culture and crippled it from being able to rise above the inevitable waves of challenge that crash against every life. Entitlement is metastasizing like stage four cancer, both in the unbelieving world and within the church.
It never ceases to amaze me how many younger adults I speak to who feel entitled to immediately enjoy the same standard of living that it took their parents decades to attain. This insidious spirit of entitlement has infected the church and wreaked havoc in our spiritual lives. When we don’t receive what we believe we have a right to expect, all too often we look resentfully at God as the One who withheld it from us.
I hope you will forgive me for being blunt. God has promised to give to us everything we need to live the life He has called us to live (2 Corinthians 9:8). We have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), and God has promised to meet our every need along the way (Philippians 4:19). But we immediately veer off into the muddy ditch of entitlement when we believe that we are entitled to more than God has promised. God never promised to meet our every want. Often what we want is diametrically opposed to what God wants for us, and for good reason. It is not His best for us. But when we feel entitled to whatever that want may be, we may become bitter and begin to shrink back from all God is calling us to in our ministry of service to Him.
We must remember that God owes us nothing, but He has promised us everything in Jesus. The Christian life is to be marked by caring contribution, not covetous consumerism. It is only when we remember this truth that we will begin to break the chains of enslavement to entitlement. We must trust in God’s provision for us and receive with thanksgiving whatever He chooses to give to us.
Entitlement places self on the throne of life rather than the Savior. But by keeping an attitude of gratitude in all circumstances, we keep Jesus enthroned in our lives, and He in turn will dethrone every sense of entitlement.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. (Romans 12:3)
No doubt you’ve heard the phrase, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” That is shorthand for all the reasons and excuses people will offer for not making whatever changes are necessary to their beliefs or behaviors. But make no mistake, the life of the Christian is a life of continual change. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Old dogs can learn “new tricks” when the teacher is our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first step to making positive change in your life is to recognize that a change is actually necessary, whether that means changing a belief or a behavior. To be convinced that you need to change is to acknowledge that something was wrong or deficient, and sinful pride will always rise up against that admission. Sinful pride will do everything in its power to convince you that you are doing fine just the way you are and that change is entirely unnecessary.
Once you push past pride and identify that a change truly is necessary, the second step is to be willing to put in the effort to make the desired change, and that effort must always begin on your knees. Take your desired change to the Throne of Grace. All change begins and ends with God, which is why you must spend time in communion with Him. Add to that time in His Word. Come to the Scriptures and read with the prayerful expectation that God will reveal the path you need to travel to reach your new destination.
Finally, having convinced yourself of the need for change and committing to making the necessary effort, you must be willing to walk the path God has shown you, regardless of cost or circumstance. God has promised to strengthen your resolve so that you will be empowered to do what is necessary to change. But you must be willing to do your part. The process of learning “new tricks” requires your active participation. The gift of God’s grace is available to us without conditions, but we must receive His grace, respond to it, and act accordingly.
Remember, change is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian, because the Gospel changes everything, including you! With that in mind, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Come to the Lord and ask Him to direct your steps . . . including those steps that will take you in a new direction.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)
The devil does everything within his power to keep you from living the life God is calling you to live. Satan can’t mess with your promised eternal life, but he certainly can mess with your present everyday life, if you allow him. And one of the sharpest darts in his arsenal is to weigh you down with the sins of your past. If he can keep you looking over your shoulder at what is behind you, it will hinder you from moving in the direction God is calling you to go.
I want to emphasize that God saying, “I will remember their sins no more” is not the same as God forgetting. God is omniscient. He knows everything all the time, and He simply cannot forget anything. If He actually did forget, he would not be omniscient, because there would be something He didn’t know (because He had forgotten it). However, God, in His mercy, chooses not to call to mind the sins we have committed in our past.
Think about it this way: Rather than treating us as our sins deserve, He chooses to forgive us and to remember our sins no more because of what His Son has done for us. God refuses to hold our sins over our heads by reminding us of our past mistakes. God has intentionally put all our sins behind His back (Isaiah 38:17) . . . removed our transgressions from us as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) . . . and hurled all our iniquities into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), never to be dredged up again. “Out of sight, out of mind,” the old saying goes, and coming from God, that is a promise that is simply out of this world! We do not serve a forgetful God; we serve a forgiving and faithful God, who says He will never bring up our past sins again.
Now, don’t confuse conviction with condemnation. Conviction takes place when the Holy Spirit reminds us that we have rebelled against God, we are filled with a godly sorrow, and we repent of our sins. Condemnation, on the other hand, is of the devil, who keeps bringing up our sins to shame us and water down our witness for Jesus.
Christian, never forget that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The next time the devil whispers in your ear, “Look at what you did,” you can respond, “Away from me, Satan! Yes, I did do that, but I am forgiven, completely and eternally, because of Jesus Christ.”
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“Let my people go, so that they may serve me.” (Exodus 8:1)
These words from the Lord were delivered by Moses to Pharaoh when God was preparing to free His people from bondage in Egypt. God was setting His people free from slavery in order that they would worship and serve Him. Now, you and I may never go anywhere near the nation of Egypt at any point in our lives, but the same principle holds true: We have been saved to serve.
Many in the church today have lost sight of this biblical truth. Instead of understanding that we have been saved for service, they believe they are saved by service. This, of course, is a false gospel rooted in our merit, not God’s mercy. Salvation is all of God. “Salvation belongs to our God,” as the great multitude in heaven declares (Revelation 7:10). There is nothing we do to “get” saved. But after God saves us, we are called to serve the One who died to set us free from our bondage to sin, Satan, and death. We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God through service. We are to live lives of sacrificial service to others – all others – regardless of the cost or circumstance.
We have been blessed to be a blessing. We have been healed to help. We have been redeemed to preach the Gospel of redemption. We have been saved to serve. This is the call for every child of God, not just those who are in vocational ministry, such as pastors and missionaries. Every Christian is in “full-time Christian ministry,” regardless of what profession they have chosen. The butcher, baker, and candlestick maker . . . all are called to serve their Savior. A “non-serving Christian” is a contradiction in terms of gargantuan proportions.
As you continue growing and maturing in your faith, keep in mind that your maturity is always meant for ministry. Jesus declared that He “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:28), and the same must be said of those who are His disciples.
So . . . Can that be said about you? Does your life reflect the truth that you have been saved to serve?
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)
I recognize that the title of today’s message may seem counterintuitive. How are we possibly going to find treasure in our trials? We do it by seeing our trials from God’s perspective and not our own. When we do that, we will understand how God is using all our difficulties for our eternal good and His glory.
The very first thing God is doing when He sends us trials is shaking us free from our shackles to the earthly and the temporal. Make no mistake, God never says, “Oops!” when opposition comes our way. God is in control of all things–not a bird falls to the ground apart from His will (Matthew 10:29)–and He is not sitting on His throne, wondering how things will work out. The Sovereign Lord “works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:11), and He wants us to loosen our white-knuckle grip on our earth-bound treasures and reach for all things above.
The next thing God is doing when He sends us trials is putting His omnipotent power on display. When trials come against us that we find ourselves powerless to endure, we must depend totally on God, who alone will get the glory when we do overcome.
The Bible is filled with examples of this principle in action. One of my favorites is the story of Gideon. God called Gideon to lead Israel into battle against the Midianite army of 135,000 warriors. After a lot of hemming and hawing and “fleecing,” Gideon finally accepted God’s call, at which point God promptly told Gideon that he had too many warriors to take into battle. I’m sure most military commanders would scoff at the notion that you can ever have too many warriors to engage the enemy, but they would be thinking from man’s perspective, not God’s. Gideon started out with 32,000 warriors, and God whittled that force down to a band of only 300. Israel was outnumbered 450 to 1, but God promised Gideon, “With the three hundred men . . . I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.” The Lord left no doubt about why He was doing this: “In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” (Judges 7:2, 7).
What God did for Gideon more than 3,000 years ago, He is still doing for you and me today. Regardless of what has come against you, you are guaranteed victory with God on your side, but you must be willing to depend totally on Him. Remember, the greatest opposition you will ever face will never come from outside of you; it will always come from within you. Our sin nature stubbornly refuses to relinquish control and rely totally upon God. But that is exactly how we will find the treasure in any trial we face. When we shift from self-dependence to Savior-dependence, we will discover the treasure that is available to us moment by moment in our trials. And what is that treasure? The glory of the Lord! When we live for His glory and experience His presence . . . there can be no greater treasure.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. (2 Corinthians 1:8)
Did you know that believers get down and depressed? Some Christians mistakenly believe that once they have trusted in Christ for salvation, depression should be as far from them as the east is from the west, as if they are now immune to depression, despair, and despondency. Now, to be sure, “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10), but the joy of the Lord is not always present! In today’s passage of Scripture, we read that the great apostle Paul despaired even of life. If Paul got down, it should not surprise us when we too get down at times. But just like Paul, we have all that we need in Jesus to deal with our “down” so that we are never “out.”
Here are three truths to lift you out of what may feel like the ashes of defeat:
Jesus is FOR You
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)
Jesus is WITH You
“I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
Jesus is IN You
To [the saints] God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
Like Paul, we all succumb to times of depression, despair, and despondency. We are not perfected yet, and we won’t be until we cross the Jordan. Until that day, there will be circumstances in life that will come against us in surprising and disheartening ways. When that happens, we must remember to keep our focus on Christ, not our circumstances. When we do that, we will be reminded of our Lord’s assurances that He is for us, He is with us, and He is in us.
Regardless of what you are facing today, remembering those three truths will help you rise above the waves of challenge that will inevitably crash over your life. As Paul also said, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). When you do find yourself in periods of depression, despair, and despondency, remember that you are only down; you are never out!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1)
There’s a tremendous line in the 1994 movie Forrest Gump that surely resonates with all of us. “Forrest,” played by Tom Hanks, looks at worldly Jenny and says, “I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.” Is this not true of each and every one of us? Not many of us have anything approaching a genius-level IQ, but do we not all know, regardless of our age or station in life, what love is? And why do we all know this? Because God is love, and the entire story line of the Bible is God’s unfolding plan of redemption . . . it is the story of God’s LOVE for us!
This love is unlike any other kind of love. God’s love is a saving love. God’s love is a sacrificial love. God’s love is a supernatural love. And there is no better picture of this love than the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And Jesus was not speaking figuratively; He expressed His love for us in exactly that way: He willingly set aside the glories of heaven and entered our world to lay down His life so that we could have eternal life in Him.
Here is something we must always remember regarding the love God has for His friends: It is a love that is ready, willing, and able to afflict both the One who is demonstrating the love and the object of His affection in order to work a greater good that could in no other way be accomplished. Christian, you are to find great comfort in this truth! God does indeed love us just the way He found us–He descended to us, because it is impossible for us to ascend to Him. But He loves us far too much to leave us in the condition He found us in. God is at work, both in us and through us, to change us and conform us into the image of His beloved Son, and He will use whatever means necessary to complete the work He has begun in us.
Regardless of where this message finds you today, keep the wisdom of Forrest Gump in view and the love your Savior has for you. He took the punishment for your sin: He experienced the unimaginable horror of taking on the full wrath of God in order to have a personal relationship with you forever and ever. He took your condemnation. He took your scourging. He took your crown of thorns. He took your nine-inch nails. He took your cross. And He took your death. Why? Because He loves you enough to die for you!
STOP! Read that last sentence again. Don’t just nod your head and read on; think about it for a moment. God loves you enough to die for you! Perhaps committing the verse that follows to memory will bring you great comfort when you are feeling a bit unloved or unlovable:
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness'” (Jeremiah 31:3).
Jesus appeared some 2,000 years ago–He was born, He lived a perfect, sinless life, He died on the cross, and He was raised to life again–as proof positive of God’s everlasting love for you. No matter what great difficulty you may be enduring right now, no matter what terrible storms are looming on the horizon, those trials are not there because God does not love you. I’m not a smart man, but I know love when I see it, and “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9)
Christians believers know full well the promise of the Sabbath rest that awaits us on the other side of the grave. But is there any rest for us now? Does the writer of Hebrews have a promise for us in the here and now? Read on, and be encouraged today!
To be sure, the promise of a Sabbath rest will find its fulfillment when we are living in the new heavens and the new earth with our God and His people. But before we experience that fulfillment, we are to experience the first installment in this lifetime. So great a salvation has been given us that we can rest from trying to save ourselves. When Jesus enters our lives, He puts an end to our self-salvation project. When He cried out from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He meant what He said! The work of salvation has been completed. We can cease from trying to earn God’s favor through our good works, which, as the Bible tells us, really aren’t that good at all (Isaiah 64:6).
There is no more wearying a work than trying to earn our way into God’s continued favor and blessing. Millions of people are laboring under this great weight week after week, month after month, and year after year. The joy of the Lord is as far from them as the east is from the west, because they are crushed under the weight of working for a blessing, rather than simply resting in the ones they have already been given in Christ. You see, it is only by trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ that we can experience this Sabbath-rest in a world that is marked by restlessness.
Remember this truth: Jesus Christ not only earned this perfect rest for us, He is this perfect rest. By resting in Him, we begin to experience in part what we will one day experience in full: the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God. If you need a little rest, live in the shadow of the cross, where your Lord paid the penalty for all your sins in full, satisfying all the demands of God’s justice. Living in the light of this truth will set you free to enjoy the fruits of your labor, rather than laboring for the fruit that Jesus gives you freely and without cost.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” (John 16:13 ESV)
In the verse before us today, we have a word of great instruction for the humbly inquiring mind that desires to know all the truth. Is that you today? Let’s take a brief look at three wonderful truths in these words from our Lord.
First, let us rejoice that the Spirit of Christ has come, and He has come to every believer. Just a few verses earlier in that same passage, John recorded these words from Jesus: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.” (John 16:7 ESV). Jesus has ascended into heaven and is sitting in His rightful position of power and authority at the right hand of God the Father, but He has not left us alone. He promised His disciples–and He promises you and me–“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). He has sent His Holy Spirit to be with every one of His children (Ephesians 1:13).
Second, let us rejoice that the Spirit of Christ has come as our Guide. We all painfully aware that we are as prone to wander as we are prone to err, and so we are in tremendous need of our Guide. Left alone, we will stray from the truth. We need our Divine Guide to keep our feet on the straight and narrow path, lest we drift to the left or to the right. The Holy Spirit is your personal Guide and Teacher, and it is His job to transmit the truth of God’s Word into our hearts and our minds.
Third, let us rejoice that the Spirit of Christ has come to guide us into all the truth. We do not want just some of the truth, which would lead to living a life that is out of balance. Without the whole counsel of God, we would only grow into a fraction of the person God is calling us to be. Only when we are guided into all the truth will we be prepared to weather any storm wind that blows our way. Those who receive only a portion of the truth find themselves buried under waves of challenge, rather than rising above them.
Do you have an inquiring mind that wants to know all the truth? I love the way the Amplified Bible renders Psalm 143:8 — “Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my inner self to You.” Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your steps, to guide your thoughts, and to shape your desires. You have the perfect Guide, living in you, as one of the many great and precious gifts you have received as a result of your faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 