Grace for the Race

We live in a visual society. We are often drawn in by what we see. This tendency bears on ministry in the life of the Christian: some service is more visible than others. But I’d like to state up front that service that is less visible is no less valuable. Why? Because it is being done for the glory of the Priceless Prince of Peace.

I often ask the question from the pulpit: “Who is more valuable in kingdom work? Is it the person out front in the place of high visibility? Or is it the person in the background who often goes unnoticed?” The answer, of course, should be a source of great comfort and encouragement to the majority of kingdom workers.

Very few are out in front. They have not been shaped by God to be in positions of high visibility. The majority of kingdom servants minister in the background. But we must always remember that ministry that is more visible is not more valuable. No matter how humble and hidden the service to our Savior may be, the body of Christ absolutely depends on that service in order to be fully functioning!

It is God who gives us our assignment, and every person has a perfect place and portion to serve God. We need only live it out with our eyes steadfastly fixed on Him.

I can tell you from personal experience at Cross Community Church, those behind-the-scenes servants are the glue that holds us all together. “Less visible” most certainly does not mean “less valuable,” because God works through the different people He has called and gifted to accomplish His purposes in this world.

So . . . have you been serving in a place of seeming insignificance? Let me assure you that there is nothing done for the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom that is insignificant! Remember, the one thing no one else in the world can be is YOU! And that makes you indispensable to the expansion of God’s kingdom in this world. Whether highly visible, less visible, or invisible to the watching world, “visible” does not mean “more valuable” in God’s economy. It never has . . . and it never will.

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

The Christian has been saved for service. Notice that I did not say “saved by service.” We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and we have been saved for service, not by it. If you’ll recall Monday’s blog, I said that we have been saved by grace through faith; we have been saved from our isolation and saved to community; today I add the truth that we have been saved for service.

God has paid the ultimate price for us through the blood of His precious Son, Jesus Christ. Yet we are not called by God to serve Him out of a sense of duty, but rather out of a sense of devotion . . . out of a heart that beats with love and thanksgiving. Our service to God is to be rooted in gratitude, not guilt, and we are to be the hands of the Holy One. This is illustrated by the following story:

At the end of World War II a group of German students volunteered to help rebuild an English cathedral that had been severely damaged by German bombs. As the work progressed, they were concerned about a large statue of Jesus, whose arms were outstretched and beneath was the inscription, “Come unto Me!” The hands were completely destroyed, and as hard as they tried they could not mend them. So they decided to let the hands remain missing and changed the inscription to . . .

CHRIST HAS NO HANDS BUT OURS!

What a wonderful solution these students devised! Christ has no hands but ours! That is a wonderful truth that should provide all the motivation we need to live for Jesus. The truth is, we will all give our lives for something. Some give their lives to their careers; others give their lives for fame and fortune; still others give their lives over to their hobbies.

So . . . what will you give your life for? Will it be to expand the cause of your kingdom . . . or His kingdom? Will you be pursuing your agenda . . . or the agenda of the Almighty? Remember, Christ has no hands but ours. May our hands stay engaged in the work of expanding His kingdom throughout a fallen and broken world, as fallen and broken people who are saved by God’s grace and called to a life of joyful, selfless service.

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

Every Christian is saved individually by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in addition to that, every individual Christian has been saved from isolation to community.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  (Romans 12:4-5)

We are members of his body.  (Ephesians 5:30)

None of us lives to himself alone.  (Romans 14:7)

What a wonderful picture we have painted for us as His church—all members of the body of Christ! And not only are we members of His body, we actually belong to each other. We truly are our “brother’s keeper” (Genesis 4:9).

The “one body” speaks of our unity. The “many members” speaks of our diversity. And the “belonging to all the others” speaks of our interdependency. We each need each other! There is no such thing as a self-sufficient saint.

Notice this truth too: there is no “I” in the word TEAM, because the good of the all always outweighs the good of the one.

What a great privilege we have been given by God! To be on His team, pouring ourselves out for His glory and the good of others . . . expanding the cause of His kingdom rather than advancing our own agenda. This is the Christian life. This is living a life of meaning, significance, and purpose. And it can only be lived out in community. Christianity is indeed a team sport.

How well have you been playing it lately?

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

Today we will complete our look at “spiritual sobriety,” a concept taken from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul. On Wednesday we encountered Saul, who was “spiritually intoxicated” with himself, breathing out threats against the early Christian church. Today we will see the supernatural change that took place: spiritual intoxication was replaced with spiritual sobriety by the grace of the Gospel.

Who Paul was after conversion . . . “Spiritual Sobriety”

Paul was a changed man. God removed the scales from his eyes and took away his pride. This is clearly laid out for us in what I call Paul’s divine descent:

Level #1          1 Corinthians 15:9

I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Level #2          Ephesians 3:8

Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ . . .

Level #3          1 Timothy 1:15

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.

“Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought,” Paul wrote in Romans 12:3, “but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.” Paul walked this talk throughout his life. Saul was afflicted with spiritual intoxication and thought much more highly of himself than he ought. Paul saw himself through the lenses of spiritual sobriety. Sober judgment was now the mark of the apostle, as he progressed from seeing himself as the “least of the apostles” to the “least of all God’s people” to being the “chief sinner” in all-the world.

Now that is spiritual sobriety in accordance with the measure of faith God had given to him. And the good news is that such faith is available to all the children of God who remember, like Paul did, what they were before Jesus showed up, and what they are now by God’s grace alone.

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

For the next two days we will look at “spiritual sobriety,” which is rooted in Romans 12:3, which was penned by the apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. In order to understand this condition, we must see who Paul was before his conversion. He was staggering blindly in the condition known as spiritual Intoxication; after conversion the power of the Gospel supernaturally creates spiritual sobriety in the lives of all God’s saints.

By the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Who Paul was before conversion: “Spiritual Intoxication”

His name was Saul, and he ferociously sought to put an end to the early Christian church.

Saul was there, giving approval to [Stephen’s] death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. (Acts 8:1-3)

So focused was Saul in his fanatical pursuit of Christians, he would stop at nothing short of the total destruction of the church. Saul demonstrated spiritual intoxication rather than spiritual sobriety. You see, spiritual intoxication is rooted in the self. The “I” in intoxication is the same “I” in the center of both PRIDE and SIN. Saul was consumed with Saul! It was Saul who looked after the coats of those who were stoning Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7:58).

Before his conversion, Saul was a one-man wrecking crew, drunk with his distorted determination to eliminate those who proclaimed Jesus as Lord and Savior. Saul thought too highly of himself! He was trapped in spiritual intoxication, but that was all about to change . . . and I will share that with you on Friday.

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

WOW!  It is hard to believe that it has been two years since God planted The Cross in Deerfield Beach through a handful of crazy Christians.  24 months of watching God make good on His promise to build His church (Matthew 16:18) through a handful of families who believed God was calling them into church planting.

To be sure, it is one thing to be in ministry.  It is another thing altogether to be in church planting.  It takes a crazy kind of Christian to leave the familiar and known to follow God’s cloud into the unfamiliar and unknown and that is what God surrounded our family with…crazy Christians who were willing to follow wherever God would lead us.  Space does not allow me to acknowledge everyone (but you know who you are and how much you are appreciated), but here are the core families who began meeting in our home:

Elmer, Devers, Wall, Bialy, Critch, Carbon, Miller, Vega

I will never forget our first official “church” gathering in the home of Joe and Carolyn Miller during Founders Weekend in Deerfield Beach in February 2012.  That Saturday evening has become known as The Cross Launch, and it was an incredible time of fellowship for a large group of family and friends of The Cross, as we talked about the vision God had given to us and gathered together out on their pool deck for a time of corporate prayer.

To say that God has done incredible things would be an understatement of gargantuan proportions.  We started our first worship service Saturday March 3, 2012 in the “rocking chair theatre” (Christian Love Fellowship Church) on Federal Highway.  After 6 weeks there, God opened the door on Saturday evenings at the New Horizons Church, and the rest as they say is history.  Their small congregation was engrafted into The Cross as we added a Sunday morning worship service in October 2012 and the entire church campus was donated to us.  A year later we added a second Sunday service and we stand in absolute awe of what the Almighty has been doing.

Most weeks we see God bringing people to faith in Christ as people come down to the front of the church after the services to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  We are seeing lives changed by the truths of the Gospel and a culture created that describes The Cross as a hospital instead of a health club.  From that small group of crazy and committed Christians two years ago we are now seeing God bring 250 – 300 people weekly to share in The Cross experience.

What lies in front of us in the days ahead we cannot know for sure.  What we do know is God is making good on His promise to build His church at The Cross one heart at a time…one family at a time.  As we increase in number we decrease in name.  We are simply The Cross Family called by God to declare and demonstrate the transforming power of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  As we begin our third year together…side-by-side and back-to-back…we will faithfully follow our Commander-in-Chief the Lord Jesus Christ into the mission fields in Deerfield Beach and to the ends of the earth until the whole world hears.

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

It was Francis Schaeffer, the American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor who once referred to the grace of God as “the present value of the blood of Christ.” In essence, he was saying that we never grow past our need of the grace of the Gospel.

We are totally dependent on the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ every day! That precious blood that cleansed us from all unrighteousness when we were saved is the same precious blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness as we are being sanctified (conformed into the image of Christ) along the road to glory. The Gospel is for sinners, you see, and we are still sinners after we have been saved.

God does not save us by grace and then expect that we run our race by the spiritual sweat of our brow. We are not only saved by the truths of the Gospel, we are grown by those truths as well. Moment by moment, we are dependent on the grace of the Gospel to wash our every thought, word, deed, and desire in the fountain of His purifying blood. Every imperfect performance and impure motive must be cleansed by His precious blood. Schaeffer was absolutely right in referring to God’s grace as “the present value of the blood of Christ,” because we are totally dependent upon it—both as the door into the Christian life and the floor upon which we build our Christian life.

So . . . have you been building your life on the Gospel or on your perceived good works? Do you believe God is blessing you because of your merit . . . or His mercy? Are you attempting to finish what God started in you? Or are you trusting in the finished work of Christ?

It is only through Him and in Him alone that we make our way into our eternal rest, and every step of the way we are reminded of these words from the beautiful old hymn:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is the flow that makes mw white as snow;

No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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

I would like you to take a few moments today to prayerfully consider what all of the following just might have in common:

• A stain on your carpet
• A dent in your car
• A tear in your pants
• A limp in your walk
• A scar on your body
• A lost wallet
• A hole in your wall

All of these and many other examples I’m sure you could think of can be reminders of some kind of unpleasant experience in your life. In the Old Testament economy, the people of God had constant reminders of their sinful natures. With every new sin they committed, whether it was a sin of commission or omission, intentional or unintentional, they were faced with these reminders:

• The sound of a bleating lamb
• The smell of fresh-spilled blood
• The sight of smoke rising from the altar

Every sin required a “sin offering” in order for the sin to be covered and cleansed. This process accomplished two very important things: first, the sinner was constantly reminded of the seriousness and sinfulness of sin; second, the sinner was reminded of being restored in relationship with God.

Glory be to God, today we need only one reminder: the cross! We are to daily remember the cross, where our Lord and Savior hung on our behalf and died in our place.

Jesus paid the price for our sin—all of our sin—once for all. We are totally free from the endless requirements of making sacrifices for our sins. The cross reminds us of this incredible truth: when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He meant what He said!

The devil would rather have you be reminded of your past sins daily. He wants to keep you as a prisoner, chained to your painful past. DON’T YOU LET HIM DO IT!

Keep the cross in view daily. Preach the Gospel to yourself daily. Remember what Jesus has done for you daily, and you will know the freedom and joy of what it means to be living under the banner of the finished work of Christ.

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

Everyone wants to know the secret to making lasting change. Most people believe that the secret is willpower . . . until they discover that their “will” really has no lasting power! The Bible makes it crystal clear that the “how” of lasting change will only come through the “why” of lasting change. In other words, the why is the how!

Oh sure, our willpower can initiate change, but it is only temporary. Most of us have discovered this truth by watching our new years’ resolutions—“This year I’m going to eat right, exercise more, read the Bible more, stop this or that bad habit, pray more, serve more” and so on—falter and fade away. The reason, of course, is that only when the Spirit of God changes the hearts of Christian believers that we will ever realize lasting change. It all comes down to the difference between temporary behavior modification and lasting heart transformation.

Christ’s love compels us.  (2 Corinthians 5:14)

Lasting change will only come through a compelling love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Love for Christ, not personal power, will propel us into the clear blue waters of a changed life. When a compelling love for God inspires us to engage in spiritual warfare against the forces that want to keep us down and out, temporary change perseveres and becomes lasting change. We resist the temptations to sin simply because of the love of Christ compels us to turn toward God and away from sin.

• Why forgive completely? Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why serve faithfully? Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why give generously? Because the love of Christ compels us!
• Why love unconditionally? Because the love of Christ compels us!

Bryan Chapell wrote in Holiness By Grace, “A love for God made vital and vigorous by sensing deeply his compassion toward us is the primary means that enables believers to resist Satan.” The love, mercy, and compassion of Christ is always and in every way the only compelling why behind every lasting how.

So . . . how is Christ’s love compelling you lately? If you’d have to candidly answer, “Not as much as I’d like,” perhaps you need a clearer vision of the hill Golgotha, where the Son of God took your place on that rough wooden cross. If there is no greater love than to lay your life down for someone else, then we need look no further than the cross to keep before us the only WHY we will ever need to be what God is calling us to be.

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

Numbers 13 recounts what happened when Israel camped on the outskirts of Canaan, God told Moses to select one man from each of Israel’s twelve tribes to go in and scout the land that God had promised to give to them. Ten of those men saw giants; two only saw their giant God!

So . . . what do you see as you face your “Canaans” today? Are you more focused on the obstacles you are facing or on Omnipotence? Do you trust that He will overcome all those obstacles as you move toward the land He has promised you? Are you more focused on your problems or on the Prince of Peace?

We all need to be reminded daily that it is not the size of the giants we face in life that makes the difference in how our lives work out, it’s the size of our God! And our God is bigger than any giant we will ever face. From the boardroom to the locker room to the family room, we all look toward our own “Canaan,” and we can become deeply discouraged if we focus on the wrong things. We can let the giants of life get the best of us, just like the ten spies did who convinced a nation to live by sight rather than by faith.

Joshua and Caleb saw the same giants and fortified cities the other ten spies saw, but they chose to focus more on the size of their God than the size of the giants that stood in their path. They had seen God deliver Israel from 400 years of bondage in Egypt. They walked through the Red Sea on dry ground and saw the pursuing Egyptians swallowed up by the sea. They knew that nothing was impossible with God!

Can the same be said about you today? Regardless of whatever trouble you are facing in your personal “Canaan,” you are not facing it alone. You face it with a God who is bigger, stronger, and wiser than any giant you will ever encounter. Because the Israelites listened to the ten spies who focused more on giants than on their God, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Wilderness wandering is reserved for those who shift their focus away from God and put it on the giants of life.

But this is not for you! The cure for whatever “Canaan” you are facing is to remember that greater is He who is in you than the anything that is in all of creation. You have His Word on it!

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