Grace for the Race

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)

The devil does everything within his power to keep you from living the life God is calling you to live. Now, there is nothing he can do to nullify your promised eternal life, but he can certainly impair your everyday life . . . if you allow him. One of the sharpest darts in the enemy’s arsenal is to weigh you down with the sins of your past. If he can keep you looking over your shoulder at what is behind you, it will keep you from looking up for the direction God is calling you to take.

It is important to understand that God choosing not to remember is not at all the same as God “forgetting.” God is omniscient. He knows everything all the time, and it is impossible for Him to forget anything. However, in His great mercy, God chooses not to remember the sins we have committed in our past.

Think about it this way: rather than treating us as our sins deserve, God chooses to forgive us and to remember our sins no more. He refuses to hold our sins over our heads by reminding us of our past mistakes. God has determined to cast all our sins behind His back (Isaiah 38:17). Out of sight, out of mind . . . which is a promise that is simply out of this world!

Let me reemphasize that we do not serve a forgetful God. We serve a forgiving and faithful God who says He will never dredge up our past sins again. Therefore, me must not confuse conviction with condemnation. Conviction is when we know we have rebelled against God, are filled with a godly sorrow, and repent of our sins. Condemnation is of the devil, who keeps bringing up our sins to shame us and water down our witness for Jesus.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). So the next time the devil hisses in your ear, “Look at what you have done now,” you can respond by telling the accuser, “I am forgiven in Jesus’ name — freely, fully, and eternally!”    

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

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead . . .  (Philippians 3:13)

Fire can be used to both build and destroy; memories will do the same. What you remember about your past can be used by God to build you up . . . or used by Satan to take you down. Some memories will bring you pleasure and others pain. That is why you must treat your past like a school: Learn the lesson that God has for you, but don’t live there. Use your past as a springboard into your promised future, not as a sofa to sleep on. Living in “If only I had done it differently“ will prevent you from living in the moment you have right now and keep you from being what God is calling you to be.

When you read through the Bible, you see just how faithful God is to His people, especially when they have been unfaithful to Him. You see, it is God’s faithfulness to you, not your faithfulness to Him, that keeps you secure in your saving relationship. God has never failed His people, no matter how badly they treated Him . . . and He will never fail you. When you treat your past as a springboard that propels you into His Spirit-filled future for you, you make it clear that you are fully trusting in God to use even your dumb decisions, damaging detours, and disastrous dead ends for His glory and your ultimate good.

Christian, your past does not equal your future. It is the devil who wants to remind you of your past and fill you to overflowing with regrets, fears, doubts, and hopelessness. The devil knows he cannot take you out of the hands of your Lord, but he sure can mess up your life along the way into glory, attacking you with gnawing guilt and relentless remorse.

But this is not for you! Choose to look to Jesus, listen to Jesus, and lean on Jesus, because He has promised that He will never leave you or forsake you, no matter what you do. Remember, God is not finished with you yet. You are a work in progress, and along the way you will mess things up. When you do, just keep looking to the One who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Allow God to use your past as a springboard, and He will take every setback and use it as a set-up for your cosmic comeback.

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

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. (Psalm 126:5)

I don’t know where this message finds you today. You may be riding the crest of a wave, feeling like you are on top of the world. Or perhaps you are feeling like you are being crushed under the weight of waves of challenge. But the psalmist is telling us that, regardless of our circumstances, we are to look past our challenges and struggles, knowing that the tears we shed today will be like seeds that will grow into a great harvest of joy and thanksgiving tomorrow.

I say it from the pulpit frequently: There are only three stations in life; you are either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or heading back into a storm. So if you are riding the crest of the wave today, enjoying the blue skies and bright sunshine, get ready for the waves of challenge looming on tomorrow’s horizon. Jesus made it clear that His disciples will encounter trials and tribulations on this side of the grave. The curse of sin and cosmic brokenness in this world always finds its way to our door. And when it knocks, even if we don’t open the door ourselves, trouble will come crashing in, especially when we least expect it.

I wrote today’s message to exhort you to rise above the waves of challenge and see life from God’s perspective. Whatever you are going through, you will go through it. God has promised to get you to the other side. If Jesus does not take you out of your storm, He will take you through it, and He has promised to be with you every step of the way. Keeping this truth in view will strengthen our faith and grow us up into Christ.

Remember, weeping may indeed endure for a night, but you can be certain that joy will find you in the morning. You have His Word on that!

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

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The great 19^th-century evangelist/preacher D. L. Moody once said, “The Bible was not given for our information but for our transformation.” Clearly Moody was echoing what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, his spiritual son in the faith.

The Bible is the living and active Word of God, designed to change us from the inside out. This transformation, of course, is all a work of God’s grace, but it demands our participation. We are called to “renew our minds” (Romans 12:2), by reading, re-reading, and continuing to re-read the Word of God. The more we meditate on and marinate in the Word of God, the more God changes us and conforms us to the image and likeness of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Now, make no mistake, inasmuch as we are to have our own daily quiet time in the Word, it must not stop there. We are also to spend time in the Word with our family of faith. As I’ve said many times, we are saved individually, but we are saved to community, and it is vital that we engage in community study of the Word of God. Group studies allow for encouragement and accountability within the community of believers. When you know that others are looking forward to seeing you and hearing what you learned during your time of individual study, you will be far more motivated to do the work and show up to share. I like to call this, “Wielding the Word!” The more you wield it in view of sharing it and discussing it with others, the greater will be your transformation.

Remember, the Word of God is far more than history and maxims and stories of heroes of the faith; it is God’s self-revelation. It is God’s love letter to you, written to transform you into the person He is calling you to be and to empower you to live the life He is calling you to live.

How is it with you these days? How is God’s Word transforming your heart and your mind? And if it currently is not, what changes do you need to make . . . starting today? 

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

Jesus said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” (Acts 1:4)

The apostle Paul exhorted Christian believers, “Let us not be weary in well doing” (Galatians 6:9 KJV). This was a reminder to his brothers and sisters in the faith to keep on keeping on with their good works for God’s glory, regardless of the response they were receiving.

To be sure, there are any number of discouragements that can cause us to grow weary in well-doing. Yet today I want to encourage you not to grow weary in waiting. In my own experience, I grow far more weary in waiting than I do in well-doing.

If we are not careful, the deafening silence from God in seasons of waiting can be a source of great discouragement. We pray . . . we receive no response from God . . . we sense only silence from heaven. And so we do everything in our power to create our own noise to stir up both the silence and the stillness that rub against the grain of our soul. But God has ordained both seasons of well-doing and of waiting in the lives of His children.

Here’s the thing: when we keep going and sowing, we have a tendency to shift from working in the power of the Spirit to the self. We lose all sight of God’s timing and forget how much we need His help. Jesus knew His disciples would fail in their own strength 2000 years ago, and He knows His disciples will fail in their own strength today. When we realize that we are struggling in a season of waiting, we are to remember these words from the apostle Peter, who also struggled mightily with waiting while he walked with our Lord during His earthly ministry:

Do not forget this one thing dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8)

The Lord may be silent, and that silence may stretch on far longer than we would like, but He is never disinterested in our prayers and our well-doing. May that truth set us free from growing weary in waiting. God will be glorified, others will be blessed, and so will you!

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

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, all human beings are born broken, sinful, and negative. By nature, we see the dark side of things. When things don’t go our way, we invest all of our energy either excusing or accusing. We come up with a myriad of excuses to explain away our own behavior and we come up with a myriad of accusations to point the finger at others.

But this is not for you! Today’s passage reminds us that, regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves it, we are to give God thanks. That’s right! We are to thank God for everything, because we know that God is at work in everything (Psalm 119:91), working all of it together for our good and His glory.

Know this: We are as thankful as we choose to be. Giving thanks is a choice, and it is a choice we are to make moment by moment, regardless of the circumstances we are facing. The key is to keep our focus on Christ, not on what is going on in our lives at that moment. Circumstances come and go; circumstances change. But not Jesus! He is the one Constant we have in our lives, who is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

When we fix our thoughts on Jesus, we will rise above excusing and accusing. We will begin to develop an attitude of gratitude in every situation. In the world of research on the human condition, an attitude of gratitude is the foundation upon which a healthy and happy life is built.

So regardless of where this message finds you today, give thanks in all circumstances! See everything as a gift from God and a blessing from His hand. God uses every circumstance to conform you more and more into the image of Jesus.

Remember, God’s will for your life is to be thankful. His command to us is to be thankful. Is this the confession of your life? Or have you let negativity have dominion over you? Choose thanksgiving in all circumstances, and you will rise above the waves of challenge and soar with the eagles.

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

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

In Psalm 63, David wrote about his wilderness experience. Some scholars believe this psalm was inspired by the time when David was on the run from King Saul, who was trying to kill him. Other scholars believe David was writing about the days when he was fleeing from his son Absalom, who was also trying to kill him. Whatever the time frame, David’s life was in jeopardy, and he was enduring a wilderness experience. Yet his focus remained on his God, who David knew was with him every step of the way.

David’s wilderness experience was beyond his control, but it was not beyond God’s control; by keeping this truth in view, David was able to rise above the waves of challenge that were washing over him. In a dry and desolate land, David knew just where to look for “water,” and he longed to worship his God in the sanctuary in Jerusalem. His desperate circumstances did not affect or alter his confidence in God one bit. Why? First, because David knew that God is a covenant-keeping God, who has promised blessing to His people, and second, because David kept his focus on his God, not his circumstances.

In verse three of the same psalm, David declared, “Your love is better than life.” Is this the confession of our lives?

When the apostle Paul said, “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), he was giving us another word for the wilderness experiences we will inevitably face in this life. For Paul, Jesus was everything. Paul lived in a continual wilderness experience from the moment of his conversion until the moment he was martyred for his faith. Yet he kept his focus on Christ, not his circumstances, and that is the key for you and me today.

Whatever wilderness experience you may be facing today or will face in the near future, keep in view both what David said — Your love is better than life — and the words of Paul: To live is Christ, and to die is gain. When you do that, you too will rise above every wave of challenge that washes over you, because greater is the power that is at work within you than any power will ever come against you.  

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

As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” (2 Kings 6:5)

Every child of God knows that God cares deeply for them. They know that simply by looking at the cross, where Jesus was crucified so that all those who trust in Him as Savior and Lord will have eternal life. There can be no question that God cares about the salvation of our soul and our eternal destiny. But far too many of us doubt God’s care over the myriad of mundane moments in our lives. Today’s passage makes it crystal clear that nothing could be further from the truth.

While some men were cutting down trees to build a place to live, one of them saw the iron axhead fall off the ax handle and sink into the water. To make matters worse, it was a borrowed ax. This man cried out to the prophet Elisha for help, and help he did! He made the iron axhead float back to the surface for the man to retrieve it. What could be more mundane in the mind of God than a lost axhead? What could be more insignificant to the God of the universe? Yet God worked through Elisha to recover the lost implement and made it abundantly clear that He cares about the mundane matters of our lives.

We have a tendency to believe that the work of our God is limited only to the major areas of life. But here we see that the mundane moments matter too. God cares more for us than we can possibly imagine! To be sure, there are some things that matter more than others, but there isn’t anything that doesn’t matter to God. Everyday tasks and ordinary trials matter to God. Remember, even in those mundane moments that seem to be as unspiritual as they are uninspiring, God is at work caring for you and conforming you into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We must realize that every moment matters to God. We should see opportunities for eternal significance in every mundane moment, because God is in all of it, working all things together for our good and His glory.

So . . . what axhead have you lost in the waters of your life? Cry out to Jesus, and watch Him make that steel swim!

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

The waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. (Proverbs 1:32)

Complacency is a great comfort to the slumbering soul. And it is this comfort that causes complacency to course through our veins, leading us to seek a trouble-free life of ease and acquiring earthly treasure. The current of complacency does not keep people from doing much . . . it just keeps them from doing much of what matters most to our Master. And what matters most to our Master demands the most from His disciples!

I sometimes joke with friends about taking a vacation (something I don’t do very often) and “drifting on the lazy river.” But drifting on the current of complacency is not a joking matter! If we grow comfortable there, we will find ourselves spiritually stagnant, spending less and less time in the presence of Jesus. We read the Bible less. We pray less. We serve less. We give less of our time, talent, and treasure. And make no mistake, the current of complacency will cause us to notice less and less of the practical needs of the people God sends into our lives.

Let us never forget what Jesus said to the church in Laodicea:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16-17)

The congregation at Laodicea was characterized by complacency. Complacency causes us to drift along the sea of self-satisfaction by any means necessary. Life becomes self-centered and self-focused, leaving little or no room for our Savior. We become indifferent to others as our senses are dulled and our spiritual lives are disconnected. But that’s not all! When we succumb to the current of complacency, the less we smell the stench of our own self-absorption. The fire we once had burning deep within us has been snuffed out by Satan, who knows he cannot shipwreck out faith, but he will strive to steer us into the doldrums and render us ineffective.  

So how do we conquer the current of complacency? First, we confess our sin of complacency to Jesus. Now, I am not talking about the occasional complacency that affects all of us, but complacency that has become a way of life. Second, we draw near to Him through daily prayer and time in His Word. We must look to Jesus, learn from Jesus, and lean on Jesus more and more each day. Third, we resolve to rise above our over-committed schedules and respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit, who will direct us to those whom we have been called to serve and bless.

Keeping Jesus on the throne of your life and exchanging self-satisfaction for Savior-satisfaction will keep you from ever hearing these words, “Woe to you who are complacent!” (Amos 6:1). This is not for you! So “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).

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

The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Corinthians 4:20)

It has been wisely observed that we have no power from God unless we live in the persuasion that we have none of our own. The Bible provides us with several examples of people who lived out this truth. The apostle Paul, for example, said this about his preaching ministry: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).

If anyone could have felt supremely confident about his own strength, ability, and intellect, it was Paul. He had advanced to the top of his field as a religious leader in Judaism, having been trained by Gamaliel, the most respected teacher of the Mosaic Law at that time. Paul’s education and his understanding of the Old Testament scriptures was second to none.

But Paul did not rely on his own ability; rather, he relied solely on the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him. Remember, it was Paul who was inspired to pen this doxology: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). Paul understood and lived the truth that the Lord Almighty had declared centuries earlier: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6).

How is it with you? Are you living your life in the power of God? Or are you attempting to live in your own power? Are you relying on the wisdom of God? Or are you looking to the wisdom of the world? When you reach the point of acknowledging your powerlessness, you have arrived at the place where God will give you His Omnipotent power.

God is not in the business of blessing those who are living in their own strength; He blesses those who are totally dependent upon Him and surrender to His will in their lives. Here is the paradox of powerlessness: It is the only place where you will find all the power you need to do all the things God is calling you to do for His glory. “For when I am weak,” Paul explained, “then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

May this truth set us all free to acknowledge our powerlessness and live in the power of God.

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