359. He's Recruiting Pilgrim Hearts

Hebrews 11:14

Do you ever get frustrated with this world and the way it’s going? Do you ever look around at the people getting more stuff, bigger houses, nicer clothes, better vacations and then realize that you don’t really care about any of that stuff? Have you tried out enough of this busted old world to realize that it doesn’t actually have very much to offer your heart? I mean, let’s be honest - this world has a lot to offer your physical senses. There are comforts, pleasures and delicacies by the truckload, but is there really all that much that can satisfy the depths of who you are? Why is it that the people who have the most stuff, the greatest accomplishments and the brightest spotlights are usually incredibly lonely, depressed and even addicted? This world was never supposed to be our home and the sensory pleasures of this world were never supposed to be able to satisfy our hearts. You were made for a better world. You’re not supposed to be comfortable here. You’re supposed to feel like a foreigner. As believers in Jesus, we are supposed to be pilgrims on a journey to a different and better world - our true home. On Jesus’ last night before the cross, He told His friends that He was going away to prepare a place for them and that He would come back and bring them to that place He was preparing. That’s why you’re getting tired of this place. That’s why you’re longing for something more. God’s people have always had a healthy dissatisfaction with temporary pleasure. We are only passing through this world. If you find yourself homesick for a place you’ve never been, you know you’re one of His kids. 

358. He'll Never Be Finished

Luke 24:5

One of the hardest things about being human is the question of your own worth. How can you ever really know whether your life means enough? On top of the difficulty of that question is the fact that death cuts the answer off. When you die, everything’s just over. Death is so final. When you lose someone really close to you, it takes a long time for the fact to sink all the way down into your heart that they really are gone and their life on earth is over. You’ll hear a song they really loved or remember an old inside joke you shared with that person and think of them. You might even start to call them or send them a text message only to remember with a painful stab that you can’t make that call because they won’t pick up. It’s over. They’re gone. Their work is finished, their laugh is silenced and all their stories are told. Surely this is the way the disciples felt on the Saturday after Jesus died on the cross. Waking up Sunday morning would have had that same, dull, numb sadness of grief until the greatest news broke over their weary hearts like a tidal wave of impossible joy. He’s back! He’s not dead! Incredibly, amazingly, Jesus is alive. His story didn’t end and His work isn’t finished. In fact, one of the beautiful things about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is that He gives us that same indestructible life that beats in His ribs. We are His kids, and we will never really die. Your worth is sealed by the fact of His spilled blood for you and His everlasting life is pulsing in your veins. He’ll never be finished with you.

357. He Died To Bring You Behind The Curtain

Luke 23:45

I bet you sometimes feel really far away from God. Not only that, but I bet you think the distance is God’s way of showing you how unhappy He is with your behavior. In other words, you assume God punishes your sin by withholding Himself from you. The reason I know you sometimes feel this way is that I do too. We all do. Everyone goes through seasons of feeling really far away from God and we all naturally think this is a direct result of our wrong. The thing is, despite the way you feel, if you know Jesus, your sin will never separate you from the love of God ever again. The truth is, we used to be separated from God because of our wrong. We were all born that way, excluded from His fellowship like the Israelites of old who worshiped God knowing that they could never really approach Him. There was a special room in the temple where God’s presence was said to dwell and a giant curtain hung in front of the entrance to that room, keeping them separate from God. Only one person could go behind the curtain and only one day out of the whole year. Even then, this High Priest had to have the blood of a spotless substitute on his head, hands and feet. Jesus came and lived a perfect life and then laid that life down to be your Spotless Substitute. His perfect blood was shed to take you behind the curtain. In fact, before He died, that curtain ripped from top to bottom. You are no longer separated from God’s presence. No matter what you have done, you can be with God right now.

356. His Love For You Is Outrageous

Psalm 139:17

I want you to answer a question in your own head without thinking about it. Just give your gut reaction as soon as you read the question. Ready? Here we go: who is the person you love most in the world? Is it your best friend? Is it your spouse or your child or your Great Aunt Liz or your German Shepherd, Roscoe? Who in your life just sets your heart on fire? Who is that person you are most devoted to and most excited to be with? Who is that person you’re crazy about, in spite of all their faults? Who is that person you would defend at all costs? Okay. Now picture them. Can you see their face in your mind’s eye and hear their voice and their laugh? Focus on that face you love and think about the way you feel about them. I want you to try something. Take your affection and commitment for that person and multiply it a million times. Multiply it a billion times. Imagine that huge love you have radiates with the eternal, explosive power of a trillion burning suns, no matter what that person does or who they become, forever and ever. Now, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to be loved like that. What if Jesus loves you with that kind of intensity and constancy? He says you’re the apple of His eye. He says you enthrall Him. He says you are His chosen, His beloved, His friend. He says He’ll never forget you and never forsake you. What if you believed those words with all of your heart? What if His thoughts about you were the most precious thing in the world to you?

355. He Gives Gifts, Not Wages

Matthew 20:15

Are you at peace and filled with a deep seated joy today, or full of anxiety? When you look at your self and your own heart, are you content, or shuddering and nervous? Do you know, right now, with absolute certainty where you stand with Jesus, or are you tense and worried, unsure about the way He sees you? People come to Jesus in one of two ways and the way you see your relationship with Him is completely dependent upon how you come to Him. People either come to Jesus as an employee ready to collect what they’ve earned or they come to Him as a charity case, ready to receive what He freely gives. Only one approach actually works, and yet most of us try them both from time to time. In Matthew 20, Jesus told a story about a landowner who hired people to work in His vineyard. Offering a certain amount of money, He hired some folks at dawn, some at mid morning, some at lunch, some in early afternoon and He even hired a few right before quitting time. At the end of the work day, He paid everyone the same. The people hired at dawn complained because they thought they should get more. The landowner said, “You got exactly what I offered you. You got exactly what you agreed to. So what if I’m generous to these others? This is my money.” When you approach Jesus like an employee, you’ll always wonder if you worked hard enough and you’ll be discontent with what He gives, but when you realize He just loves you for no reason, you accept everything as charity, which frees you up to just be satisfied, joyful and loved.

354. He Got Us Out Of Trouble

1 Thessalonians 1:10

Do you ever have those moments where you come face-to-face with the awful truth of who you can be and realize that if Jesus didn’t love you, you’d be hosed? And look, I’m not talking about someone making you feel guilty about something from your past. I mean, you have some funky attitude or reaction and you look at it all on your own and admit to yourself without any doubt, “I’m kind of a huge jerk.” The weird thing is, no matter what we try to do, we can’t clean up the spill. We can't rehabilitate the jerkiness away. There’s a darkness deeper than we like to face inside everyone of us. The weird thing is, even though we know this is the truth about ourselves, we forget it an awful lot. It’s very easy to think that the world is divided up into evil people and good people and we’re basically on the good side. Do you ever land with both feet in those moments where you know you’re not on the good side? The truth is, there’s a storm coming. It’s unavoidable and unstoppable and it’s going to change absolutely everything. The uncompromising justice of the Holy God of Heaven is going to sweep down over this world and His patience with wrong will be replaced with devastating power unleashed on every corner of darkness until everything is made right. It’s not just something crazy people write on cardboard signs - the end is actually coming one day. The wrath of God will spill out and we deserve to be leveled in that awful wake, but we won’t be. We have been spared. Jesus saved us because of His love for us.

353. He's Okay With Some Honest Stubbornness

Luke 11:8

I think when it comes to prayer, most of us are a bunch of chickens. My whole life, I’ve heard people pray in such a way where they dance around the thing they really want to say instead of just saying it. I’ve heard people pull punches with God and even apologize for bringing up what they’re asking of Him. Sometimes, when people do get around to asking for the thing they really want God to do for them, they’ll immediately frame it by saying, “but only if it’s Your will, Lord.” In other words, these folks will effectively withdraw their request as soon as they make it by deploying the ‘if-it’s-Your-will’ clause. I have to be real here and admit that I’ve prayed like this as well. We all have. We learned it from other believers. We want to treat God with the respect He deserves and we don’t want to sound like a bunch of demanding, ungrateful punks rattling the gates of Heaven, so we back off from asking for the thing we really want. The thing is, Jesus didn’t teach us to pray this way. Jesus told His guys to pray with honesty, intensity, determination and even a disregard for social propriety. He told a story about a guy going over to his neighbor’s house at midnight and begging for bread to feed some unexpected guests. It’s a rude request and the neighbor flatly refuses, but Jesus says the bread was given. Wow. That’s prayer. It’s stubborn and real, even if it is disrespectful. Real prayer says, “I’m not leaving your porch until you answer me.” Does that make you uncomfortable? Jesus said it’s the way to get what you want.