Grace for the Race

Today is the final installation of a three-part message of exhortation to men, built on this quote from Pastor Tullian Tchividjian’s sermon last Sunday: “When we apply the Gospel to our relationships—by loving one another, by serving one another, by laying down our lives for one another—the power of God is unleashed in our relationships.” 

Tullian asked the congregation: “Where was Adam when the serpent tempted Eve?”  The answer to this question is the key to understanding the failure of men in the church to “man-up.”  The Bible says, “Eve gave some [of the forbidden fruit] to her husband who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6).  Tullian emphasized that “The Scriptures do not say Eve threw the fruit across the garden to Adam, but instead she gave it to her husband who was with her.”  So, if Adam was with Eve as she was being beguiled by Satan, I can come up with only one answer to the piercing question―“Where was Adam?”  HE WAS STUCK IN HIS SILENCE!

Adam was silent with his wife Eve and he was silent with the serpent.  He refused to encourage his wife and to engage the Serpent.  Far too many men in the church today remain silent when they should speak up: speak up for their faith . . . speak up for their family . . . speak up for their future . . . and ultimately they grow into only a fraction of the man God is calling them to be.  Their silence and inaction forces their wives to step into the vacuum and lead, when the woman was designed by God to follow the loving leadership of a godly husband (see Ephesians 5:22-27).  This may sound jarring in today’s age of “feminism,” but it is a fact that the heart’s cry of every daughter of God is for their man to lead as the spiritual head of the household should. 

Tullian explained that biblical spiritual headship looks like Christ’s love for the church.  He said, “In Ephesians 5:26-27, we read that Christ gave Himself up for the church so she would be sanctified, cleansed, and presentable.”  When a man refuses to “man-up,” everyone is affected.  When a man is stuck in his silence, all those he is commanded to lead shrink spiritually.  You see, in God’s economy, when it comes to biblical manhood and masculinity, silence is not golden, it is sinful!  It is high time for men in the church to stand up, speak out, serve sacrificially, and shine brightly for the glory of the King.  If not you . . . who?  If not now . . . when? 

In closing out this message to men, let me say that men will never become real men simply by being involved in a “men’s movement” . . . and I am a leader in the PCA Men’s Movement!  I love the singing, the speakers, and the slogans.  But Christian music and challenging seminars will never be enough to fix what is wrong inside men.  Even the accountability that is so essential to growing in grace will not, in and of itself, produce a godly spiritual leader.  Sin-filled hearts can only be healed by the sinless Savior: Jesus Christ.  Only when the Living God becomes more important than life itself will men begin living for God.  Only when God is at the center of our story will His story direct our lives. Tullian has explained it with brilliant clarity: “The only way to overcome sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it through a superior satisfaction with the Gospel.”

Men, let this be a word of encouragement to you today.  Jesus loved you to death, even death on a cross.  He is calling you to man-up and speak up for your wives and your children!  Speak the words of life that Scripture contains, and LIVE those words out in front of your family! When you do, Satan is silenced.  I’ll leave you with this video that drives the point home from Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church

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

Today is the second installation of a three-part message of encouragement to men, built on this quote from Pastor Tullian Tchividjian’s sermon last Sunday: “When we apply the Gospel to our relationships—by loving one another, by serving one another, by laying down our lives for one another—the power of God is unleashed in our relationships.”

Far too many men in the church of Jesus Christ are chasing after “the good life” rather than the godly life, and thus they make the power of the Gospel impotent in their lives.  They seek their identity in the stuff of this world and live lives marked by dissatisfaction, disappointment, and disillusionment. It is time for every man to “man up,” to grow up into Christ, and to take responsibility for himself, his family, his church, his community, and his world.  To do anything less is live less than God’s best. 

When Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matthew 4:4), He was making it clear that the physical life will never satisfy our deepest desires.  Our DNA is hard-wired with the driving desire to “feast” on the only thing that can fully satisfy our hunger and thirst: Jesus!  Jesus once pointed to a well of drinking water and said, “Everyone who drinks of this [physical] water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:13-14).

If we seek fulfillment from anything smaller than Jesus, our hunger is never satisfied and our thirst is never quenched.  Spiritual beings that we are, we simply cannot be satisfied and sustained on anything less than the spiritual sustenance found only in our Savior.  I speak to men every day who live in homes bigger than they need, who carry far more debt than they can repay, and who eat foods richer than they should.  Why? Because they are determined to live “the good life.”

Men who are intent on climbing the ladder of success, rather than laying down their lives for others as Christ called them to do, are stepping on others in their mad scramble toward the top rung.  And tragically, when they reach their goal, they find the ladder they sacrificed so much to climb is leaning on the wrong wall! 

These men do not realize that they are robbing God! They withhold their time, talents, and treasure from the advancement of the cause of Christ.  Even when they do seek to advance the cause of Christ, they are seeking the cause itself and not the Christ behind the cause. They want to be known as men of God without truly knowing the God who made all men.

Last Sunday morning, Tullian charged every man in the congregation to live a life shaped by the Gospel and the Gospel alone.  To “man up” is to step up into faithful and fruitful service to the King.  It means to love others even when they are unlovable.  It is a challenge to serve others even when it is not convenient.  It is a call to lay our lives down for others, and in doing so, to live for something far bigger than our own goals and desires.  This is the call for every Christian man.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!   

Yesterday I sat under the preaching of my beloved pastor and friend Tullian as I always do each Sunday.  I had the privilege of sitting in the pulpit with him as I assisted him in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Tullian delivered the sermon rooted in Colossians 3:18-19, “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.”  He focused on the “man” portion of this verse and what he had to say to every man was as powerful as it was penetrating.  From where I was sitting, it was easy to see most men squirming a bit in their seats.  I wonder how many saw me squirming in my seat up in the pulpit.    

I am going to devote all three days this week to the inspiration I received from Tullian’s sermon.  So if you are a man or if you are connected to a man in anyway, please read on today, Wednesday, and Friday.  I will build my blog on the following quote from Tullian, “When we apply the Gospel to our relationships—by loving one another, by serving one another, by laying down our lives for one another—the power of God is unleashed in our relationships.”  If the church of Jesus Christ is going to maximize its impact in this world for the glory of the King, every man must be willing to “man up” by taking responsibility for being the spiritual leaders God designed them to be.  God made the man to be the head…not the tail, and passivity which passes itself off as piety is a plague among men in the church today. 

So what does it mean to lead spiritually?  Tullian said, “If leadership means power, then it is power to serve, not to be served; to care, not to crush.”  Tullian understands leadership from a biblical perspective because the Gospel not only informs his life, it shapes it.  Those who “man up” lead in ways that others want to follow because their leadership style is marked by service and care for others.  When the Gospel informs and shapes our lives, we are compelled to move beyond the borders of meeting our own needs and satisfying our own desires.  We are compelled to lay our lives down for others and begin putting others first.  In doing so, we live lives of personal sacrifice that at the deepest level, begin to model our Master.  Jesus gave up everything, including His relationship with His Father as He hung on the cross.  He held nothing back from us and He is asking us to hold nothing back from Him, not so He can control us, but so we can get out from under the control of everything smaller than God. 

The call to “man up” is a call for every man to live for the Master regardless of the cost or circumstance.  And to live for the Master is to die to the self.  When we deeply understand and daily act upon the truths of the Gospel, God’s power is unleashed in unimaginable ways.  Selfish men become serving men.  Careless men become caring men.  Faithless men become faithful men.  Lusting men become loving men.  Angry men become anointed men.  These are men who were once living for nothing bigger than their own lives but are now living for others and the glory of the King.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!         

Today’s meditation is the fruit of a short devotional delivered a few months ago to our Inreach Team by the Executive Director of our church, Rob Pacienza.  My friend Rob focused on three verses of Scripture which clearly demonstrate the depth of the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the Gospel he preached to so many.  Rob reminded us that this is the way we all need to see ourselves if we are going to live out in our lives what we profess with our lips. 

Paul understood the economy of God.  He knew that the way to get is to give; the way to live is to die; the way to go up is to go down.  Let’s take a look at Paul’s Perfect Plunge.  He wrote, “For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9).  Paul started with his call.  Called by God while he was on the road to Damascus, in hot pursuit of Christians to persecute, Paul stressed how undeserving he was to be an apostle of Christ.  In acknowledging his absolute unworthiness to be so called, Paul took the first of three steps in his perfect plunge.

Here is the second step in Paul’s perfect plunge. “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).  Paul was not satisfied to describe himself as “the least of the apostles,” so he went on to identify himself as the “least of all the saints,” so as not to confine his unworthiness within his fraternity of apostles. 

Finally, the “least of the apostles” and of “all the saints” took his third and final step on his perfect plunge into understanding his own imperfection: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).  Under the probing and penetrating light of the Gospel, Paul is demonstrating his increasing awareness of his own self-absorbed, sin-filled life.  He knew he was a sinner both by nature and by habit.  Yet as he was growing up into Christ, he was simultaneously growing up into the Gospel.  In essence, Paul was renouncing any and all trust he might have had in his own pedigree or performance and relying solely on the finished work of Christ for his acceptance by God.

By acknowledging himself as the “chief sinner,” saved by the grace of Christ Jesus, Paul knew there was nothing he could do to make God love him more and nothing he could do to make God love him less!  Clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, Paul knew God accepted him for Christ’s sake alone . . . or he was not accepted at all. 

It is only by the grace of God that we can see ourselves as Paul saw himself.  Think about this for a moment.  When Paul looked out at the people he was preaching and ministering to, his understanding of the Gospel compelled him to see himself as the most sinful and depraved person on the face of the earth.  It was only when Paul fully recongnized how very low his sin had brought him that he truly understood how great was the grace that had rescued him!   This understanding compelled him to pour out his life to advance the cause of Christ.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for our race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Now that title screams oxymoron does it not?  If God is gracious…and He is…shouldn’t His grace seek to remove all of my hardship and replace it with pleasures multiplied?  How in the world could the grace of God be discomforting in a culture that seeks personal comfort as the ultimate end?  Even in the church we are inundated with messages from theologically barren pulpits that preach the life of the Christian is lived in a region bound on the north by material prosperity, the south by relational success, the east by physical health and well-being, and on the west by every comfort and convenience Western society can offer. 

Yet, God’s grace is a discomforting grace and it must be because we have a comfort agenda that consumes our minds and controls our hearts.  We will do anything in our power to trade a life of rigorous activity for relaxing ease regardless of the cost, even when the cost is communion with God.  To be sure, we are rebels by nature on the run from God.  In my pastor Tullian’s newest book, Surprised by Grace, he writes, “When we run from God, his response is more likely to be stormy and upsetting than quiet and subtle.”  This is the grace of discomfort.       

Our desire to live lives within a zone of comfort causes us to seek security and safety at the expense of service and submission to the will of God.  God’s will more often than not, forces us out of our zones of comfort by leading us down the road of discomforting grace.  God knows that we will by nature seek the path of least resistance which is often in the opposite direction from the path God would have us travel.  Therefore he will make us as uncomfortable as we need to be made in order to make us zealous for the only Comfort in both life and death…the Lord Jesus Christ!  God will tolerate no rival. 

Life with Christ is not a comfortable life.  It was Jesus who said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33).  We have been promised a life of discomfort not because the One who promised it is unable to keep it from happing.  Omnipotence is sending us His grace of discomfort to drive us to the cross where we find a greater rescue than a rescue rooted in nothing more than a life of predictable pain free pleasure.  The grace of discomfort dislodges from our grasp everything except our desperate need for God.  This is the gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

Now for those of you who know me as the “coach” and might be thinking that I am speaking about the body I have good news for you.  I am not!  I am speaking about your life…your blood-bought, born of grace, blessed of God, life in Christ.  So, what is the shape of your life?

The shape of your life is determined by the size of your love.  Love God…live large.  Love self…live small.  When your heart is focused on anything smaller than God, the shape of your life begins to shrink.  When power shapes your life you shrink.  When materialism shapes your life you shrink.  When personal preference shapes your life you shrink.  When status shapes your life you shrink.  When pleasure shapes your life you shrink.  When success shapes your life you shrink.  What you give your heart over to…what you love, ultimately shapes your life.  When your love for anything in creation replaces your love for the Creator, you grow only into a fraction of the person God is calling you to be. 

The Bible says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).  Small lives are shaped by the love of the world.  Large lives are shaped by the love of the Word.  Small lives are shaped by the imagination of man.  Large lives are shaped by the revelation of God.  What is shaping your life? 

The grand affection of your heart is lived out moment by moment each day by the thousands of small choices you make.  Choose this day who you will serve.  To be sure, the creation can seem more real and more relevant than the Creator.  Satan sends messages through every means imaginable to seduce our hearts, satisfy our flesh, and shrink our lives.  Resist temptation and flee the devil and settle for nothing smaller than the God who sought you, caught you, and bought you with the blood of His precious Son.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!

The life that Jesus purchased on the cross is abundant life in more ways than one.  To be sure, it is abundant because it gives us everything we need for eternal life.  But it is also abundant because it gives us everything we need for everyday life.  The problem comes in when we choose to live a life smaller than the one Jesus paid for with his own precious blood.  Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). 

Now the “thief” is very crafty in executing his plan in destroying life.  It really doesn’t look like destruction at all.  In fact, on the surface it looks pretty good.  It is a life that is lived with the greatest goal of personal happiness.  We want our home to be loving, our health to be good, and our harvest to be plentiful.  And what is wrong with that you ask?  On the surface there is nothing wrong with wanting a loving home, good health, and a plentiful harvest.  These are good gifts that God is often pleased to give to His people.  But when these gifts are our greatest goals we are living lives that are smaller and narrower than they were ever meant to be.  You see, Jesus didn’t die on the cross to make you happy.  He died on the cross to make you His.  And in making you His you may find your home troubled, your health tested, and your harvest threatened. 

So what kind of life have you been living lately?  Have you been living in pursuit of your happiness or His holiness?  You were not blood-bought to accomplish your goals and meet your needs, but to pant after and partner with the Most High God in expanding the cause of His kingdom.  It is being driven to get up early and stay up late to know better, love deeper, and serve more faithfully the One who has promised to never leave you nor forsake you.  Now that is true happiness in both life and death.  That is the Gospel.  That is more grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!!

When was the last time you contemplated what God in Christ really did for you?  To begin to fully grasp this incredible truth of the Gospel, you must be able to see what you were in need of before Jesus showed up.  You were not in need of rehabilitation.  You were not in need of restoration.  You were not in need of rejuvenation.  You were in need of rescue.  Nothing short of rescue would do.

“He delivered us from the domain of darkness” Paul tells us, “and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).  This is the language of rescue…not rehabilitation, restoration, or rejuvenation.  It was only the rescue mission of God that freed Israel from slavery in Egypt.  It is only the rescue mission of God that freed you from slavery to sin.  In a word, you were rescued from yourself! 

By God’s grace you were rescued out of one kingdom and into another kingdom.  You were rescued from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.  You were rescued from the kingdom of evil to the kingdom of good.  You were rescued from the kingdom of death to the kingdom of life.  You were rescued from your little kingdom where your heart is ruled by the pursuit of earthly treasures to His big kingdom where your heart is ruled by Jesus. 

So which kingdom have you been living for lately?  Which kingdom has meant more to you both in your personal life and your professional life?  Which kingdom has been shaping your life and the lives of all those you lead and influence?  The little kingdom of one, or the big kingdom of the One?  When you are pursuing your dreams, your desires, and your delights you are serving the kingdom of one.  But when you are pursuing His dreams, His desires, and His delights you are serving the kingdom of the One. 

This is the place where you refuse to pursue anything smaller than God.  This is the place where you refuse to use your God-given gifts, talents, and abilities in the service of your own little kingdom.  This is the place where loving God becomes your first priority and loving others is a close second.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN! 

How rich are you today?  I am not speaking about the balance in your checking account.  I am speaking about your blessings in Christ!  If by the standards of this world you are not rich but you are in Christ, rejoice, for you are rich beyond measure!  From the pen of the apostle Paul we read, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Jesus has riches that are beyond the measure of mathematics.  Jesus has riches that are beyond the reach of reason.  Eye has not seen, ear has not heard the riches of our Savior because they are simply beyond measure.  But you say, “I am a great sinner!”  I say, “Your Lord is a greater Savior!”  Jesus is more ready to forgive your sins than you are to transgress His laws and He proved it on Golgotha’s Hill.  Those who have been blood-bought by the Lamb of God are rich beyond measure. 

Know this – your crucified Savior has crucified all of your sins…past, present and to come.  Every sin has been nailed to that dirty tree.  When Jesus said it was finished…it was finished indeed.  Once you have confessed your sins with a godly sorrow as Peter did when he went out of the camp and wept bitterly after looking into the eyes of his Lord and Savior, return and feed the sheep.  Also know this – your risen Savior has given to you a risen life.  The power of His resurrection has given to you all the power you need to rise up out of the ashes of any defeat.  Shed those grave-clothes of disappointment, discouragement, or defeat, because Jesus has made you rich beyond measure.  This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN!    

How fitting to surround our National Day of Prayer with two posts about prayer and our Prince who unceasingly prays for His people.  Wednesday we looked at Preemptive Prayer and today we will focus on Protective Prayer.  “I do not ask that you take them out of the world,” Jesus prayed, “but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15).

It is instructive to note that Jesus did NOT pray to God that His people would be spared from hardship, trials, and suffering!  His protective prayer was not for insulation and isolation from the challenges of daily living.  No, our Lord was praying for protection from Satan, the old master whom we once served.  Jesus knew that Satan would not give up his former servants without a fight.  Jesus understood that if Satan had his way with us, we would live little lives marked by self-righteous, self-reliant, self-absorbed, and sin-filled service of self rather than the Savior.   

What our Lord knows well—and what we often forget—is that disciples of Christ need to be fitted for heaven in the fires of hell.  The winds of trial . . . the storms of testing . . . the difficulties of discipleship are all designed to drive the roots deeper and deeper into the soil of the sanctified life.  If we are to be ready one day to wear a crown, it will be because God has given us the grace to carry our cross.  If our Lord, known as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the God-man who was perfect in every way, suffered on our behalf, should we who are sinful by both nature and habit shrink back from the struggles of this life?  May God forbid it!     

Mark this well, believer: if there be no devil to do battle with and no worldly enemies to fight, there is evil enough inside our own hearts that requires protective prayers from our Prince of Peace.  Steve Brown said, “God is bringing you to the end of yourself.” My beloved friend, Pastor Tullian Tchividjian, agrees: “The sooner God brings you to the end of yourself, the sooner you can begin living for God.”

Let us take sword to every enemy we must face today, knowing that we fight not in our own strength, but in the strength of our Lord.  NEVER FORGET THAT…AMEN