Grace for the Race

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!

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3)

If you are as old as me, and I am old, you might remember a famous baseball-themed comedy routine performed by American duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the mid-20^th Century – “Who’s on First?” The routine involved Abbott, the manager of the fictional St. louis Wolves, identifying players for Costello, a ballplayer. The humor comes from the names of the players, such as “Who’s on first” – “What’s on second” – and “I Don’t Know is on third.” It has been called one of the greatest comedy routines of all time.

Now, building on that theme, we come to the most important answer to the question, “Who’s on First?” In other words, who is in first place in your life? Who sits on the throne of your life?  When God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, the first one on the list made it clear who was to be on first. God said in no uncertain terms, we were not to have anything (other gods) before us (Exodus 20:3). Now, we have come to understand that anything that sits upon the throne of life is a god to us. If it rules our heart, it will ultimately shape our lives. So the question we must ask and answer each day is, “Who’s on first?” What occupies first place in our lives personally, professionally, and relationally?

Remember, putting God first is not just a good idea; it’s a command. Jesus Himself said it’s the most important and greatest command in all of sacred Scripture . . . “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:36-38). To put it simply, we are to love God first, most, and best with every fiber of our being. Jesus is to be sitting on the throne of our lives, guiding and governing every step we take and every move we make. When He is, we will be experiencing all the meaning, significance, and purpose we were designed by God to experience. At this level of living, our lives will make sense because we will be living for the One thing that we were designed to live for – and His name is Jesus. So “Who’s on First?”

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

All things work together for the good of those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted with gold or silver. In the 15^th Century, Japanese Emperor Ashikaga Yoshimasa had broken a beloved tea pot. Instead of discarding it as most of us would do and replace it with a new one, he sent it off to China to be fixed. When he received it back, he did not like the way it had been repaired. So he brought in Japanese craftsmen to repair this beloved tea pot. In the process of this repair, they founded the art of Kintsugi, putting back together the broken pieces of the tea pot with lacquer mixed with dusted gold, making it stronger and more beautiful than it was before. Instead of trying to hide the cracks, they emphasized each one, where every visible line in the pot told a story of its journey for all the world to see.

This ancient art is a beautiful picture of the King of Kintsugi, Jesus, and how His redemptive and restorative power mends our broken pieces and shattered lives, making us stronger and more beautiful in our brokenness than we were before. Jesus is in the business of mending broken people, and that includes me and you.

The Bible does not shy away from revealing all of the brokenness in the people God uses for His glory and the expansion of His Kingdom. In fact, it highlights the brokenness, showing the importance of embracing all of the imperfections in our lives. To be sure, we live in a world that highly values flawless perfection, and we do everything within our power to hide our blemishes. Yet, the King of Kintsugi takes our brokenness and makes it beautiful. Jesus does not try to cover up our brokenness. Rather, He celebrates it by putting on display His amazing grace and marvelous mercy, as He continuously mends our breaks, making us stronger, better and more useful than we were before the break.

Both Kintsugi and the life of the Christian have profound parallels. They emphasize the beauty of broken imperfection and the awesome power of redemption and restoration. We need not try to hid our brokenness, but rather, embrace it knowing that all things are working together for our good, including every area of brokenness we experience throughout this life.  

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

Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me to.” (1 Kings 19:10)

From the mountain top to the deep valley below, we all experience what the prophet Elijah experienced from time to time. It’s called burn out. Now I know some Christians are not willing to admit it because they have been taught to keep a “stiff upper lip” and never let anyone “see you sweat.” But this is as sad as it is silly. Because we have not been perfected yet, and won’t be until we are received into glory, we will all, from time to time, go through “Broom Tree Experiences” –

Exhausted

Depressed

Feeling Alone

Ready To Give Up

God had just used the prophet Elijah to defend His glory by defeating 450 prophets of Baal. And after one of the greatest victories in all of the Bible, he has come to the end of his proverbial rope because the pagan queen Jezebel sent word to him that she was going to kill him by the next night. So, Elijah experiences a false sense of failure and wants to simply end it all and make the pain go away, “He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die” (1 Kings 19:4). BUT GOD will have none of it. God meets Elijah in his place of deep need and miraculously provides for his needs. Elijah needs refreshment and restoration, and God provides food, both physical and spiritual. As he slept under the broom tree, the angel of the Lord shows up saying, “Arise and eat!”  

We have all found ourselves in “Broom Tree Experiences. We have given our all in the service of God and our all just didn’t seem like enough. We felt drained, depressed, and in utter despair. Then God showed up. And He keeps showing up every time we go through these seasons of struggle. When you find yourself under the broom tree for whatever reason, remember the Lord is with you, for you, and in you, and the words He spoke to Elijah He is speaking to you, “Arise and eat!” What a word of encouragement for every Broom Tree Believer.   

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

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. (Psalm 90:1)

Regardless of where we live, whether a mansion on a mountain or a tent in the wilderness, our God is to be our Dwelling Place. This biblical concept of God as our dwelling place expresses the dependability, reliability, stability, and immovability we have when we are resting in the Creator of the universe. Nobody understood this better than Moses, who was called by God to deliver His people out of bondage in Egypt, and wandered around in the desert for forty years with no permanent place to live. Our passage of Scripture comes from the only Psalm attributed to Moses who knew best what it meant to have God as his dwelling place. Check out how other psalmists put this truth:

You hide them in the secret place of Your presence (Psalm 31:20)

You are my hiding place (Psalm 32:7)

God is our refuge and strength (Psalm 46:1)

You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance (Psalm 71:3)

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” (Psalm 91:2)

Here is something else to consider with God as your divine dwelling place. You have unbroken fellowship and friendship with Him. When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, it was because He wanted to be in an intimate and loving relationship with you. In the Gospel of John, he tells us that Jesus came to “tabernacle” with us (John 1:14). When you find those times in your life when God seems distant, remember, it was you who moved, not Him. Jesus has promised to never leave nor forsake you, no matter what you do. The life, death, and resurrection of our Lord has given all of us access to Him moment by moment in order to enjoy the fullness of joy in His presence.

Let’s close with one of the most encouraging verses in all of sacred Scripture that should be written on your heart and emblazoned on your mind because you dwell with God:

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

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