Max Lucado

Good evening, everybody.

What a wonderful place.

Man, I love your pastor.

I love your pastor.

I love what he does.

What an encouragement he is and how he touches people.

I really believe that the Lord has given him a special assignment in our day to minister to churches around the world and giving us this special reminder to keep things first.

As he mentioned, he was at our congregation in San Antonio over the weekend.

And after my wife and I heard him on Saturday night, we all went out and had dinner and enjoyed some wonderful time with him.

And then the next morning, when I woke up, I wasn't preaching.

Well, obviously I wasn't preaching.

Pastor Robert was there, but I was actually even off on Sunday.

And so I I woke up and I and I said, Lord, what can I learn from uh the message last night?

And uh my wife and I had visited after we dropped them off at the hotel about our tithing, about our giving, and we felt at peace with it.

We didn't sense anything that needed to be changed.

But here, this is interesting.

I woke up the next morning, and uh and I have this practice.

Uh when I get up, I get a cup of coffee, and I go outside, I let my dog out, and then I follow him, and I go outside and I walk out the gate, and I pick up the newspaper, and I walk back in, and I sit down and I start reading the newspaper.

And that's what I call my wake-up time.

That's my time to kind of get awakened so I can and I can read my Bible and have my time with the Lord.

Sunday morning, I sense the Lord saying, I want those first minutes.

I want those first minutes.

And it dawned on me.

I've been giving my first minutes to reading about the economy, to reading about the war, to reading about the crisis, to reading about the cowboys.

I've been thinking of.

And the Lord said, I want those first minutes.

So I want you to know, Pastor, for the last three mornings, that's just three now, right?

Sunday, Monday, today.

I got up and I didn't even touch the newspaper.

I just sat down and I opened the Bible and I said, God, you're good.

You're good.

You're good.

You're my father.

You're in charge.

Your kingdom come.

And I said, Lord, I need help.

Heal me, encourage me, lead me, pardon me.

And so do my friends.

They need help too.

And so do my enemies.

Please be with them.

And thank you, Lord.

And you know what, brother?

I've not even gotten to the newspaper in the last three mornings.

And I haven't missed a thing.

So it's good.

It's good.

Thank you so much for letting me come up from San Antonio, Texas.

Any of you ever been to San Antonio, Texas?

My goodness gracious.

So grateful that this worked out.

I love to preach.

If God ever told me I had to choose between breathing and preaching, I would suffocate.

I love to preach.

And I love our church in San Antonio.

And I just got to tell you though, I think they're getting tired of me.

I've been there 25 years.

I think they're getting tired of me.

Not too long ago, I went into one of our men's rooms, and we have, you know, those to dry your hands, you hit that button and a blast of hot air comes out.

And someone had written on a sticky note, for a brief message from our pastor, hit this button.

Can you believe that?

And then after one of the services some time ago, this kid comes up to me, maybe a 13, 14-year-old boy.

He says, Um, Pastor Max, I want you to know that's the worst sermon I've ever heard you preach.

The following Sunday, he came up to me and he said, I was wrong last week.

So I met with our elders.

I said, You gotta do something about this kid.

He's driving me crazy.

They said, Oh, don't pay him any mind.

He only repeats what he hears.

And they always gave me a hard time about preaching too long.

Not long ago, a guy got up right in the middle of one of my sermons, and he started walking in the well, I stopped everything.

I said, sir, where are you going?

He said, I'm going to get a haircut.

I said, Well, why didn't you get one before you came in?

He said, I didn't need one before I came in.

No, it's a it's a great church.

It's a wonderful church.

They put up with a lot out of me and have for all these many, many years.

We're not too bright down there.

You know, we're not as sophisticated as you Metroplex folks.

Some time ago I mentioned to the church that as soon as the service was over, I was going to be flying up to Manhattan where I was going to be preaching.

And a lady came up to me after the service and she said, Did you say you were going to Manhattan?

I said, I did.

She said, Well, could you say hello to my son while you're there?

I said, What's a short trip?

She said, Well, if you don't mind, could you just look him up?

Could you say, I said, all right, give me his phone number and his name or email.

She said, That's just the problem.

We've lost touch with him.

She said, I'm thinking you might just be walking down the street and just bump into him.

I said, I didn't say I was going to Mule Shoe, Texas or Blanco, Texas.

I was going to Manhattan.

She said, you never know.

She said, just to keep, just keep an eye out for him.

His name is John Dunn.

Well, wouldn't you know?

The next day I was walking down a major avenue and I passed this tall building with these big block letters over the entryway.

And the letters said these words, Dunn and Brad Street.

I thought, what was that guy's name?

John Dunn.

I thought, could it be?

Dunn and Brad Street.

So I went in.

I went up to the receptionist.

I said, ma'am, can you tell me, do you have a John here?

She said, Well, a matter of fact, we do.

Down the hall, first door to the run.

So I went down the hall, first door of the run, and I walked in, and a gentleman was stepping out of the stall.

I said, Sir, are you done?

He said, I'm.

I said, then call your mother.

You just never know.

I grew up in West Texas.

Some of you are acquainted with West Texas might understand what I'm about to say.

I was 10 years old before I ever saw an ocean.

I grew up for 10 years, and the largest body of water I saw was really nothing more than a small pond or a dried-up creek.

Or a cattle tank.

When I was 10 years old, my dad decided to take the family on vacation to the West Coast.

Because at the time, his two brothers, Billy and Tommy, were living in the Anaheim area.

So he loaded the car and we drove from Odessa, Texas, all the way out to Los Angeles.

And I saw an ocean for the first time.

And I gotta tell you, I can remember that moment to this very day.

I stood and I looked at the immensity of the Pacific Ocean.

And I turned to my uncle and I said these words.

I said, it just keeps coming.

You see, I'd never seen waves.

I'd never seen an ocean stand up on its hind feet and come out like a bear out of the depths and slap on the sand and then disappear again and then come up again and then slap and then come up and slap.

It just kept coming.

And I turned to my uncle and I said, it just keeps coming.

He said, you know what?

This happens at night too.

And if you come back in December, it just keeps coming.

I said, Really?

He said it comes all year long.

I waded out into the water.

Got knocked over by a wave.

I regained my balance, and guess what was coming at me?

Another one.

I stood up, bam! It just kept coming.

Did you know that there is a grace of God?

It just keeps coming.

And just when you think you've made one mistake too many, or just when you think you've got your mind around God's love and got it figured out, bam! Or just when you think you've got it reduced down to a doctrine that you can capture on a page.

Splashing, dousing, drenching.

Grace is the word the Bible uses to describe God's radical commitment to redeem and restore for himself a people with whom he will reign on a restored planet, in a restored universe, forever in the new kingdom.

It just keeps coming.

Timothy, that young disciple of Paul, once received a letter from Paul in which Paul told him, now be strong in the grace that is yours in Christ Jesus.

Just be strong in grace.

Of all the things that Paul could have told Timothy to be strong in, be strong in prayer, be strong in church leadership, be strong in evangelism.

But Paul in this final epistle told that young pastor, now you be muscular in grace.

Be strong in it.

Go into the gymnasium of grace on a regular basis and develop your grace muscles.

Be articulate in the language of grace.

The Hebrew epistle writer said, now see to it that no one misses the grace of God.

Do you know this grace?

I'm wondering if it's been a while since you stood in front of a tidal wave of God's grace.

I'm wondering how long since you felt yourself drenched in his love and his mercy.

Could you use a good splash?

If so, you're in the right place.

There's so many times in which our Lord Jesus demonstrated grace.

But if I have to pick a favorite, it's in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

And the story starts like this.

Early the next morning, Jesus was back again at the temple.

A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them.

And as he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery.

And they put her in front of the crowd.

Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.

And the law of Moses says to stone her.

What do you say?

Voices yanked her out of bed that morning.

The voices of accusation.

Get out of bed, you harlot.

What kind of woman do you think you are?

And the priest slammed open the door and they threw back the window curtain.

Before she felt the warmth of the rising sun, she felt the heat of their scorn.

Shame on you.

And one of them grabbed one arm and the other grabbed another, and she scarcely had time to cover her body before they marched her down those narrow Jerusalem streets.

And I can just see the women sticking their heads out the window, or the men stepping out into the pathway, and the women pulling the man back, merchants turning and looking, and people glaring and staring and crossing their arms.

And Jerusalem became a jury and rendered a guilty verdict.

And they marched her of all places to an early morning Bible study.

Where Jesus had gathered in the temple courts.

And people we envision are encircling Jesus, maybe a horseshoe of students.

And out of nowhere comes this mushroom cloud of people, religious leaders, the spiritual Nazis of their day.

And they have this woman and they thrust her right into the presence of Jesus in this Bible study.

And in my imagination, it's all she can do to keep her balance, and maybe she loses it.

And she falls down.

And one of the religious leaders, one of the pastors, stands up and he says, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

What embarrassment she must have felt.

There in her dangling negligé and smeared lipstick.

In front of these religious leaders.

Caught in the act.

Caught in the moment, caught in the passion.

We find out later it was all a trap.

This was all a setup, which explains, I guess, why the guy is not being accused with her.

I guess.

This woman was caught, caught.

Turns out she's just the cheese and Jesus is the mouse, and this is all a trap.

Caught in the act of adultery.

Now the law of Moses says we need to stone her.

What do you say?

I'm wondering if the woman looks up from the ground and she's out of level with the waist of the men, and she can just see they're all squeezing these rocks, and their fingertips are turning white.

She doesn't have anywhere to turn.

She can't deny what happened, right?

She was caught.

She can't turn to anyone for help.

I mean, these men who are accusing her, they're the ones who are supposed to help her.

She doesn't have anywhere to turn.

Next time you read this story, take a highlighter or a pen and follow the postures of Jesus in John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

Because when the woman is brought into the presence of Jesus, John says Jesus was sitting and teaching.

Before the sitting Jesus becomes the standing Jesus, he becomes this.

The stooping Jesus.

And he leans down and he writes in the sand.

Wouldn't you love to know what he wrote?

Billy Graham said, This is the only sermon Jesus ever wrote.

He wrote in the sand.

He stooped.

What did he write and why did he stoop?

I think I know what he wrote.

If someone will remind me at the end of the sermon, I'll tell you.

Why did he stoop?

I wonder if it's because everyone in that circle was looking down on her.

And Jesus wanted to get eye-level with her, maybe even lower than she.

As if to say, all right, if you're gonna look down at me, you've got to look even farther than you're looking down at her.

He stooped.

He entered her world.

He got on her level.

He got eye to eye with her.

Dear friend, right now, Jesus Christ is doing that with you.

And for some of you, this is the first time.

You always saw God up there looking down at you.

But did you know that He comes and He gets eye level with you?

And He enters your world.

And they kept insisting, they wanted an answer.

The religious leaders did.

In fact, John tells us that.

They just kept asking him.

They kept asking him.

They wanted a response.

So finally, verse 7 says, they kept demanding an answer.

So he stood up.

So the stooping Jesus becomes the standing Jesus.

And he lifted himself erect until his shoulders were straight and his head was high.

And he stood, not for long though.

He's not going to say much.

But he stood and he said this.

Alright?

Stoner.

But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones.

Then he stooped down and he wrote in the dust.

So the sitting Jesus becomes the stooping Jesus, becomes the standing Jesus, becomes the stooping Jesus, becomes the riding Jesus again.

If you take your Bibles and your pressure Ear really hard against John chapter eight.

And you're very, very quiet.

You know what you'll hear about this point?

Rocks are falling.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one.

Beginning with the oldest.

I've always thought that's an interesting.

As if we, getting gray-haired and thin-haired, we know we can't fool God.

Beginning with the oldest, they slipped away until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd.

So the students are still there with the woman.

And Jesus wasn't finished.

He had one more question.

He stood one final time and he asked the woman, Where are your accusers?

That's my question tonight.

No, I'm sorry.

That's God's question for you.

Some of you woke up this morning to voices of accusation.

Maybe not some outsider coming in and yanking you out of bed.

Far worse.

The voices came from inside your own head.

I'm not strong enough.

I'm not good enough.

I failed again.

I'll never make it.

And every time you try, there's another voice, there's another reminder.

Who is this morality patrolman who issues a citation every time we stumble?

Who reminds us of every single mistake?

Will he ever shut up?

No, he won't.

He won't because Satan never shuts up.

There is a real devil.

This isn't just an idea.

It's not just a collective bad mood of humanity.

There is a real malevolent force loose on this planet.

He's on a tight leash and his time is marked.

And he knows it.

And he has one goal, and that is to take as much joy out of your life as he can every single day.

I do not believe he can take your salvation.

I really do not.

I believe that when God has a hold of you, he's never gonna let go of you.

I believe he's got a hold of you.

So I do not believe that Satan can take your salvation, but I do believe that he can take your joy.

I believe he can take your confidence.

I believe he can take your fruitfulness.

And I believe that he every day is standing as close as close as he can.

And he's just issuing these citations, these accusations.

He's just dredging your past, reminding you of things that you've long since given to God.

And he just got this list and he wants to bring it up and bring it up.

And every time you step forward, he's the one in your voice, in his voice, in your mind, saying, Yeah, but you're the one who, you're the one who, aren't you the one who?

And he comes at you.

Sometimes he comes at you through the voices of demons that encircle our lives or haunt us.

Sometimes he speaks through evil friends.

Sometimes he speaks through well-meaning friends.

And too many times he speaks to us through the voices, the memories of our parents.

I have one friend who tells me he thinks his mother must have owned a travel agency that specialized in guilt trips because she took him on a new one every day.

And if you grew up in that kind of home, those voices get inside your head.

They get inside kind of your a part of your hard disk, a part of your wiring.

And they just seem to haunt you and to follow you.

But I want you to know that when what Jesus did for that woman, he does for you.

And his question to you as you start this year is can we not, once and for all, deal with these accusers?

Can you envision your life, my friend, without these voices of accusation?

Can you not envision this life in which you lead with no voice pulling you back, no hook pulling you back?

Can you not envision yourself standing in the name of Jesus when these voices come saying, All right, that's enough.

In the name of Christ, I am a forgiven child.

I have been bought, I have been purchased.

No more.

Because here's the deal: everything Jesus did for her, he has done for you.

Think about it.

He stooped for her.

Did he not stoop for you?

Did he not stoop to enter your world?

Did he not wrap himself up in human flesh?

Did he not place himself in the womb of an adolescent girl?

Did he not descend the birth canal into the calloused hands of a Jewish carpenter?

Did he not descend?

Did he not stoop low enough to grow up in a one camel dot town on the edge of the Roman Empire?

So that there would never be a time in your life in which you would offer a prayer that he would say, Now I don't quite get that.

He stooped to breathe our air, to eat our food, to live with cranky neighbors, everything that you and I face.

He faced, stooped low enough to be nailed to a cross, to receive upon himself adequate punishment for every sin that has ever been committed.

Stooped low enough to take a final breath and to shed his blood.

He stooped.

Even low enough to be placed in a tomb.

But do you know what he did in the tomb?

The stooping Jesus became the standing Jesus.

There, right in the middle of the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

He stood up.

He stood up and he walked out.

And he spoke up just as he spoke up on behalf of the woman.

He's been speaking up for you.

Right now, dear friend, at the right hand of God, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

He is your advocate.

He stands up for you.

And he positions himself right between you and your accuser.

As if to say, if you're going to speak about him, you've got to talk to me because I have covered him.

And right now in the tribunal of heaven, the words of the devil have absolutely no merit.

Why?

Because you have been captured and bought and purchased by Jesus Christ.

Everything, go ahead and tell him thank you.

Everything that Jesus did for her, he does for you.

And he does something for you that he didn't even do for her.

I told you, wave upon wave, better put on your safety harness.

He gave her his help.

But did you know that he has given you his heart?

His heart.

Look at this from Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 25.

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean, and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols, and I will give you a new heart.

And put a new spirit in you.

When you give your heart to Jesus, he returns the favor.

He removes the old heart and he replaces it with his heart.

In the Bible, the heart is the word that's used to describe the want-to and the can-do.

What we desire and what we're able to accomplish.

So when the Bible says you get a new heart, God's saying, I'm going to give you new desires.

And I'm going to give you new abilities.

And he removes your heart, poisoned as it is, with pride and sin and struggle.

And he places within you a pulsating new heart of potential.

No one got this more than the Apostle Paul.

Did you know there was an occasion in which the Apostle Paul actually wrote these words?

He said, and I'm not making this up.

He said, it is no longer I who lives, but Jesus Christ who lives where?

In me.

So you've already read this verse.

It's no longer I who live, but Jesus Christ who lives in me.

Can you imagine getting to the point where someday you walk and you look in the mirror and you say, I don't think that's me anymore.

I don't have that bigotry I used to have.

I don't have that bitterness I used to have.

All those years I lived out of my wounds and my pain, but you know what?

I haven't thought about those.

I'm not perpetually ticked off anymore.

It is no longer I who live.

But every time I read about Jesus, I think I do that now.

I love people he loved.

I care for people he cared about.

I find myself loving people I've never met, giving gifts to people I don't even know.

It's no longer I who lives, but Jesus Christ who lives in me.

What a radical statement.

Grace is the radical commitment of God to redeem and to restore for himself a people with whom he will reign forever.

That's what this is about.

That's why it's called new birth.

Because he takes the old out and he places the new in.

Folks, this is utterly unique to the Christian hope.

No other religion in the history of mankind has implied the living presence of the leader in the followers.

Muhammad does not indwell Muslims.

Buddha does not indwell Hindus.

Hugh Hefner does not indwell the hedonist.

But we Christians embrace this inscrutable promise.

The Apostle Paul said, the mystery is this: Christ in you.

The hope of glory.

You might call this a spiritual heart transplant.

Tara Storch understands this miracle as much as anyone.

She and Todd were blessed with three children.

And in the spring of 2010, they went on a family ski trip to Colorado.

And their beautiful 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, died in a tragic ski accident.

And what followed for Tara and her husband Todd was every parent's worst nightmare.

A funeral, a burial, a flood of questions and tears.

And they decided to donate their daughter's organs to needy patients.

And few people needed a heart more than 39-year-old Patricia Winters.

Her heart had begun to fail some five years earlier, leaving her too weak to do much more than sleep.

And so Taylor's heart gave Patricia a fresh start on life.

Tara, who happens to be with us tonight, had only one request.

She wanted to hear the heart of her daughter.

She and her husband flew from Dallas to Phoenix and went to the home of Patricia.

And the two embraced for a long time, soon to be joined by Todd.

And after a few moments, Tara took the stethoscope and she placed it against Patricia's chest.

Their webpage, which I encourage you to visit, tailor's gift.org, tells the story of this remarkable encounter.

She whispered.

She is very strong, Patricia assured.

I want Todd to hear it.

And she handed the stethoscope to her husband.

And so he did.

And mom and dad took turns listening to their daughter's heart.

Here's my question.

Whose heart did they hear?

Whose heart did they hear?

Did they not hear the still beating heart of their daughter?

When God places his ear against your chest, O dear son and daughter of God.

Whose heart does he hear?

Does he not hear the still beating the heart of Jesus Christ?

Grace upon grace upon grace.

You see, grace is about what Jesus did for us on the cross long ago.

But grace is about what Jesus does in us right now, tonight, even as right now, we sense the spirit of the living Jesus Christ.

I don't know how I missed this for so many years.

I believed every other preposition.

I believed that Jesus was above me, beside me, around me, ahead of me, behind me, beneath me, for me, with me, but in me.

I can't blame my deficiency on the Bible.

The apostle Paul refers to the indwelling presence of Jesus in the heart of the saint.

Listen, two hundred and sixteen times.

When my wife says anything to me three times, I better get it.

Paul says, I only said it two hundred and sixteen times.

John says it twenty-six.

It is no longer I who live, he said, but Christ who lives in me.

God's dream isn't just to get you into heaven, but to get heaven into you.

And he has taken up residence within you.

And little by little, one degree of glory to the next.

He's reclaiming what is rightfully his.

Because his plan is to include you as a citizen in heaven with the heart of Jesus Christ within you.

And so right now, he who began a good work within you is steadily busy about the plan of reclaiming what is rightfully his.

Some days he does that through blessings, some days he does that through burdens.

Some days he does that through great news.

Some days he does that through tough news.

Some days he does that by lifting us up.

Some days he does that by pruning things away.

But he is ever intent of doing whatever it takes to bring you every day, more and more, into the presence and into the appearance of Jesus Christ.

That is his goal.

His goal is not necessarily your comfort.

I wish it were.

So just enjoy it.

About this point in the lesson, I always think, okay, I need to come up with two or three things to tell people how to get grace.

But I think the Lord told me one day, Max, you don't get grace.

Grace gets you.

It just gets you.

You just trust it.

You rely upon it.

You keep your heart soft toward your heavenly Father.

So here's where I like to leave it.

I want to challenge you to let your heart be less like a rock and more like a sponge.

Less like a rock and more like a sponge.

I'm not too bright, but I know what happens if you take a rock and you put it in some water.

When you pull that rock out, it's wet on the outside, but if you're somehow able to crack it open, guess what?

Bone dry.

Bone dry.

Because this rock has a hard exterior.

Now, some of you through the years, because of the wounds and problems that have come into your life, your heart has gotten hard.

It's gotten hard.

And grace is having a hard time finding an opening.

Could I encourage you just to let your heart be soft?

I learned this washing so many dishes through the years.

You know what happens when you take a sponge and you put it in the water?

Does anybody know what's going to happen?

You pull it out and it's just drenched.

May God give you a spongy heart.

Every day.

Every day.

Your goal is just it.

Wake up, Lord.

Just let it come over me, Lord.

Let God's forgiveness go where it's never gone before.

Would you?

Would you let this be the year?

This be the year that you let his grace go deeper than it's ever gone before?

You know, we don't know whatever happened to the woman, do we?

We'd love to know.

But the story stops there.

Jesus says to her, Where are your accusers?

And she looks around and they're all gone.

And Jesus says, Does no one accuse you?

And she said, No one.

And then what could be the sweetest words ever spoken?

Jesus spoke.

Would you hear them as he speaks them over you?

Then neither do I accuse you.

There is now therefore no condemnation.

Neither do I accuse you.

Now go.

Sin no more.

Live a life of grace.

Let grace be your source of strength.

You've been moved out of a place of hurt and anger, and you've been lifted up and you've been placed into a place of grace.

And so the woman left.

The students left.

Jesus left.

But before we leave, I promised you that I would tell you what Jesus wrote in the sand.

Here's what I think he wrote.

I think if we could somehow look down upon that sandy floor and see the handwriting of God in the dirt, we might read these words.

Grace happened here today.

I don't know what he wrote.

But I do know this.

I do know that grace happened there.

And right now I'm praying that it will happen here.

I'd like to invite the altar team to come forward and the praise band to come back up.

And during these next few moments, your assignment is simply this: Lord, let the wave come.

Let the wave of grace come.

Part of the reception of grace is the confession for the need of it.

And maybe you've never said, I need forgiveness, but tonight the Lord is talking to you.

And he's reminded you that you need forgiveness for your sins.

You were not made to carry these sins.

Jesus Christ came and died so that you don't carry this guilt anymore.

Just let him forgive you.

Let the pride go, let the resistance go, just let it go.

Some of you have said yes to Jesus a long time ago, but you've slid into kind of a legalism where you think, you know, if I'm better, he'll love me more.

No, no.

Anything we do is not to earn God's love.

It's in gratitude for God's love.

So maybe the Lord is just calling you back into a place of grace.

Or maybe you've been listening to those voices of accusation.

In the name of Jesus, they will be silenced tonight.

Because Jesus has authority.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

And tonight we ask him in the name of Jesus to break any stronghold, to silence any voice.

Tonight, the devil has no place.

He's not welcome here, but you, Lord Jesus, are.

And we welcome you.

And we thank you.

And we ask you, Lord, to do your work now.

Let's all stand up and during this time of worship, if we can pray with you, just come down the aisle.

Or if you'd like to give your heart to Jesus, this is the time for you to do just that.