Grace for the Race

We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. (Numbers 13:33)

God could not have been any bigger in the eyes of the Israelites. He had freed them from bondage in Egypt after 450 years. He decimated the land with ten plagues, turned the Red Sea into a highway, and drowned the pursuing Egyptian army after His people walked across on dry ground. He gave them water from a rock and manna from heaven. Now they were ready to go into the Promised Land and receive God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in that moment of decision, they shrunk the size of their God in their eyes and in their hearts.

God sent twelve men to spy out the land He had promised to them and ten came back with a negative report (they shrunk the size of God), and two came back with a positive report (they magnified the size of God). It was true that the people in the land were big and the city walls were fortified, but God had promised to give it to them. Ten spies saw powerful people. Two spies saw God’s powerful promise. Where ten spies saw obstacles, two spies saw opportunities. Where ten spies saw problems, two spies saw possibilities. Ten spies said, “We can’t!” Two spies said, “We can!” All twelve spies saw the exact same things in the Promised Land. The difference in the report was rooted in the fact that ten spies looked through the eyes of the flesh while two spies looked through the eyes of faith. What lenses have you been looking through lately in your life?

When was the last time you shrunk the size of your God because you were looking through the eyes of the flesh? Remember, with man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible. When God makes a promise to you, you can be sure He will keep it. Nothing can keep God from fulfilling His promises to you. No weapon formed against you shall prevail because your God is bigger than any obstacle that stands in your way from entering into your Promised Land. So, how big is your God? It all depends on whether you are looking through the eyes of the flesh or the eyes of faith!

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

On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:16)

In the game of checkers, the statement “King Me” refers to the time when a player moves a piece to the last row on the enemy’s side of the board and gets to elevate the rank of his piece to “King” by stacking another piece on top of it. In the game of life, the statement “King Me” refers to the time when we remove Jesus from the throne of our lives so we can sit atop of it.

When we remove Jesus from the throne of our lives and take His rightful place, we make everything in our lives all about me. Rather than love for Jesus ruling our hearts and shaping our lives, love for self takes over. We become a demanding king who expects to be served and satisfied by everyone and everything. At this level of living, we are looking to get from others only what God can give to us. This only leads to frustration and disappointment in our relationships because no one can ever measure up to those kinds of demands.

But when we shift our focus away from the self and put it on our Savior, we say, “King He” allowing Jesus to rule and reign in our lives. Now His rule and reign is not always what we expect or even want, but it is always what we need and when we need it. When we look back over the years we can see when Jesus did not meet our expectations, it was because He exceeded them. Jesus is always working things out in our lives for our ultimate eternal good and that includes all the things we don’t like. You see, sin often causes us to question the goodness of our God because we see only a tiny portion of our lives. But because God sees it all from beginning to end, we can always trust that He is guiding us into His perfect plan and purpose for our lives through all of our imperfections.

So, what do you say today? Is it “King Thee” or “King Me?” How you answer that question makes all the difference in the world in how you experience the abundant and victorious life Jesus has promised to all those who keep Him on the throne of their lives.

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

A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path. (Matthew 13:3-4)

The soil of the sanctified life can get a bit hard from time to time. It can happen when we face unexpected challenges. It can happen when we face unmet expectations. It can happen when we encounter unforeseen loss. Because life is hard it can, from time to time, harden us. So, we must always be on the lookout for any signs of “hard soil” in our hearts and allow God to till it with the truths of the gospel. Below are two simple steps to take that can help in the process of softening the hard soil in the heart.

Examination:

The first step is to take time for self-reflection. This is the time to let the Scriptures search our hearts to uncover and areas that may be growing cold, distant, or hard. We must first identify where the hard soil is before we can go to work on softening it.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

In this passage David is asking God to make sure his hatred for his enemies is not man-centered, but rather, God-centered. David was zealous for the justice of God and he wanted God to point him in the direction of any wrong motives so God could change them.

Excavation:

The second step is to let the Lord do His work in softening the hard soil by digging down into the depths of the heart through the truths of Scripture.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

Here David is asking God to excavate his heart that was hardened through his adultery and murder. He knew it would take a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to till the hard soil so God could then begin to plant new and better seeds of both thoughts and desires.

In today’s passage we are to understand that unlike our paved roads today, in Jesus’ day, most of the roads were simply hardened dirt-packed paths. The more they were traveled upon, the harder they become. The consequences were clear, “and the birds came and ate it up” (Matthew 13:5). Perhaps you have been trampled upon by the difficulties of life. Don’t let the birds steal your seed. Look to Jesus and He will soften the soil and the seed will take root and produce new fruit.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

As it has been said, “There are no coincidences in this world. Only God incidences.”  Nothing happens outside of the sovereign will of Almighty God. If God knows the number of hairs on our heads and a sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from His care, then we can be assured that everything is happening according to His plan and purpose.

God has left absolutely nothing to chance. Rather, He has left it all to Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Author and the Perfector of our faith. The writer of Hebrews says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3).

Now, in our finitude, we simply cannot fully plumb the depths of how God in His providence, is controlling all things for His glory and our eternal good. Yet, we must still affirm, “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever” (Romans 11:36). This truth is to empower us to move through life with a confidence that is rooted in the One who accomplishes everything according to the counsel His will through His perfect wisdom, perfect power, perfect holiness, perfect goodness, perfect mercy, perfect grace, and perfect love, just to name a few of His perfections.

So, let us cling to the promise of our Scripture verse today. Regardless of what we encounter throughout this day and every day on our way into glory, we can rest assured that God is in control of it all and using it all for His glory and our good. Remember, we need not fear what the future holds because we know the One who holds it. As we receive, rest in, and thank God for His providence in our lives, let us leave coincidence to the unbelieving and watching world, who believe stuff just happens for no particular reason.  

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

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)

When Jesus said we would not get through this life without experiencing pain in a variety of different forms, He meant what He said. Yet, inasmuch as we experience pain on our way into glory, we will not be marked by stain. C. S. Lewis put this biblical truth in this most profound way:

“God, who foresaw your tribulation has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.”

Notice how Lewis tells us how God has armed us to go through our trials and tribulations. He did not say God would steer us over, under, or around it. Rather, God takes us through it to grow and mature us in our faith and in so doing, He is conforming us to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus. Perhaps our first prayer should not be, “Lord, please take this trial away!” but rather, “Lord, as you take me through this trial, thank you for making me more like Jesus.”

In the Old Testament story of Jacob and his twelve sons, we learn how Joseph was favored by his father and hated by his brothers. One day Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, but instead decided to sell him into slavery. Joseph was taken down into Egypt and served as a slave and a prisoner for 13 years. After God used him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine, he was elevated into the second position of authority in Egypt. During the famine, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Here they encounter their brother Joseph without knowing it. Eventually Joseph reveals himself to them and said these life-changing words, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is not being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

Clearly Joseph experienced much pain throughout those thirteen years, but this statement makes it clear his pain was without stain. He saw God’s sovereign hand in all of it and knew that God was in complete control of everything. Joseph knew there was purpose in his pain and God’s purpose would not leave a stain. Let that truth set us all free to say along with the apostle Paul, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

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

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  (John 15:13)

Today, many will enjoy time off from work while grilling out with friends and family as they celebrate Memorial Day. This is the day we pause to say thank you to those brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice by freely giving their last full measure of devotion in defense of our country and for the cause of freedom around the world. We honor those heroes who willingly served and sacrificed their lives because they loved their country and their fellow man. We say thank you to all those who died defending our nation and to all those family members left behind. But that’s not all.

From a biblical perspective, I want to offer a deeper meaning to this annual holiday under the title Memorial Day Everyday, a sermon I preached yesterday at The Cross (www.thecrosscc.org – click on “watch our livestream”). The sacrifice of our military personnel is both moving and meaningful. But the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is miraculous. Our military sacrificed defending our nation. Jesus sacrificed for every tongue, tribe, and nation. The sacrifice of our military personal has brought to us benefits that are only temporal and physical. The sacrifice of Jesus brought to us benefits that are eternal and spiritual. And if that was not enough, when God the Father sent God the Son into this world to pay the penalty for sin, it was for His enemies, not His friends.

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, thought for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).

Here we see the sinless Savior of the world dying for those who were his enemies. This demonstrates a love that is simply supernatural. Jesus took the place of rebels on the run away from Him when He was nailed to a cross and died an unimaginable death while we were still sinners and His sworn enemies. Jesus died to make it possible for enemies like us to be redeemed and reconciled to Him as His friends.   

So, today, we celebrate the freedom we enjoy in our nation because of all those who have fought and died for it. But let this day remind all of us of the truth that Christ’s death brings the greatest freedom one can hope for – freedom from our bondage to sin, Satan, and our last enemy death. Pause to praise Jesus today, who purchased all those who trust in Him, by grace through faith, as their Savior, freely laying down His life to make available to us the greatest gift of all, eternal life with Jesus and all the saints of God.    

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

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip – she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” she pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.” After a long time the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.”

Not much commentary needed on a story like that. To be sure, the tongue is a very small thing indeed, but what enormous damage it can do to those we wag it at. Gossip isn’t harmless. It is a poisonous form of communication and has shipwrecked the lives of countless relationships between family members, friends, co-workers, and our brothers and sisters in the Lord. So how do we rise above the toxic talk that can come out of our mouths. We need to remember this one simple Scripture and keep it before us every time we open our mouths –

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

If we are going to speak life, we must think before we speak. We need to think about the power of our words and be committed to speaking life through words that build up rather than tear down. Remember, unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again. As the wise preacher tells us, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18). By God’s grace, may reckless words never be the confession of our lives.

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

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.  (2 Corinthians 1:20)

As we all know by way of personal experience, a promise is only as good as the integrity of the one making the promise. We have all made promises and we have all broken promises. And we have all had promises made to us and we have all had promises broken to us too. But there is One who has never broken a promise He has made and He never will. Read on and be encouraged today.

God is the true Promise Keeper. As the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe and the Author and Perfector of our faith, we can count on every promise in the Word of God and we can take God at His Word. Because the Word of God is true and God does not change (Malachi 3:6), we can take to the believer’s bank every promise God has made knowing He will make good on it. As the psalmist wrote, “For He spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). When you are praying out of the knowledge of His promises in Scripture, you can pray with the confident assurance and expectation that your answer is on the way.

Remember, the greatest promise God ever made He has already fulfilled. He promised to send a Savior and 2,000 years ago He did just that. Jesus lived a sinless life, died a sacrificial death, and rose supernaturally from the grave. To all who receive Him as Lord and Savior, by grace through faith, eternal life is your promised reward. And if God kept the greatest promise He ever made, He will surely keep the second greatest promise He ever made – sending Jesus back to consummate His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Our God is trustworthy. Our God is faithful. Our God is a Promise Maker and The Promise Keeper. No matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” and “Amen” in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You have His Word on it!

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

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name. (Isaiah 25:1)

There are only two reasons to do anything in life. One is for personal gain and the other is for God’s glory. The Scriptures are full of examples of both and it is always a good idea to inventory our hearts from time to time to see just what the motivations are behind the things we are doing. We can sum it all up this way: are we using God as a means to attain an end or is the end God Himself. The first has us pursuing God for personal gain, the second for God’s glory. And often we can be sailing through life without ever noticing the difference until the storm winds begin to blow and when they do, we will know the true motive of the heart by either shrinking back or standing firm.

Let’s take a brief look at these two categories of professing Christians. The person working for personal gain thinks about their relationship with Jesus rooted in the great gifts He can give to them. They come for hope. They come for happiness. They come for health. They come for a better home life. These are just a few of the personal gain reasons which makes it clear that Jesus is not their Messiah, but rather, He is their means to their desired ends. However, the person working for God’s glory looks to Jesus as the end itself. Jesus is not the vehicle to victory He is victory Himself. Jesus is not the way to wealth He is our wealth. He is not the way to happiness He is our joy. So, how would you describe your walk with Jesus right now? Is your relationship with Jesus a means to a desired end or is Jesus the end Himself?

What we need to remember is we were created for relationship with Jesus not for the rewards we get from Him. Perhaps there is no better book in all the Bible where we see this truth lived out than Job. God allows His servant Job to suffer unimaginable loss – health, wealth, and all ten of his children. Even his wife ridicules him for staying committed to God. In essence, Job loses every reason to stay in a right relationship with God expect God Himself. It is clear from this story that Job loved God more than all the good gifts God had given to him. Yes, Job loved his wealth, health, and children. But He loved God more. For Job, God was not a means to a desired end. God was the end Himself, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:21-22).

May this be the confession of our lives that our relationship with God is built solely upon the goal of His glory and not our gain, because ultimately His glory is our greatest gain.

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

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites our of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

After forty years tending sheep on the back side of the desert, God was now ready to use Moses to deliver His people out of bondage in Egypt. Moses started well with this response after God called to him, “Here I am.” But after God told Moses His plan to make him the divine deliverer of God’s people, Moses began to exchange God’s use for his excuse. Let’s take a look and I promise you will be as comforted as you are challenged to answer whatever call God has placed in your life today.

When Moses said, “Who am I . . .” he was speaking truth about the fact that he was not qualified for God’s call in his life to do anything, at least from his perspective. Forty years earlier, when Moses was in the court of Pharaoh, he killed an Egyptian slave master who was beating a Hebrew slave. When what Moses did was exposed, he fled Egypt and spent the next forty years as a shepherd in Midian. 

God knew who Moses was. God knew how Moses tried, in his way and his timing, to free his countrymen from slavery in Egypt, but he did it the wrong way – in his own strength rather than the strength of the Almighty. Yet, here is God calling Moses into His service to deliver His people out of bondage to slavery. Here is one of the greatest comforts we find throughout sacred Scripture: God sees past our past all the way to our current potential as an instrument of usefulness in His mighty right hand. And the same is true for me and you.

Have you ever wondered why God chooses to use such messed up people in His service? It’s because that is all He has to work with. We are all messed up. We are all sinners with a past that would shame us all if those closest to us knew what God knows about us. Yet, in His magnificent mercy God raises us out of the pit of our sinful past and into His promised plan and purpose for our lives. And that is why God refused to accept Moses excuse that he was not good enough to answer God’s call. Yes, it is true, Moses was not good enough in his own strength, but in the strength of the Almighty he was more than good enough, he was God’s ordained instrument of usefulness. By the way, Moses made a few more excuses and God simply took Moses from excuse to use, and that is exactly what God wants to do in each of our lives.

So, have you answered God’s call in your life today? Remember, God knows everything about your past and still wants to use you in the present for two simple reasons, His glory and your ultimate good.

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