Servant With the Word
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In my lifetime, I don’t know of anything that has ever been worthwhile that has come out of my walk with God that hasn’t been like that, where I had to grab it and reel it in. I was in a comfortable flow of events in my lifetime, and I could’ve found a lot of other ways to handle life that wasn’t nearly so “out there” -- so unknown, so risky. But somehow, we reeled it in and said, “Let’s give it a go, let’s find out what this is made out of, and let’s give it a try.”
Again, just from a practical basis, it sounds “out there,” but one of the reasons why things always seem to be a little further out there than they really are, is because our willingness to be practical tests our hearts in a really difficult way. Everybody in this room said a few minutes ago that you know somebody that doesn’t pray very well or very much. We just talked about what you can do about it, and that is to go to their house, sit down with them and read every passage in the New Testament and half of them in the Old about prayer and discuss with them your experience of prayer. Ask them to pray for you that your experience of prayer will be better than it is. But grab ahold of the counsel and the thought of God about prayer along with someone that you know needs that in a humble way, as a servant with the Word, not as a master. That is one example, among others. That one isn’t “out there” anymore, is it? Isn’t that real? Won’t we all decide tomorrow if we’re going to act on that or if we’re not?
With me, a lot of things seem further out there than they really are for me because I don’t want to do it. I’m afraid of it; I can create mysteries that aren’t really there. “God, I don’t understand.” “Ohhh, yes you do!” It happens to me all the time, “Oh, yes you do,” is the answer. I know that I can go forward in something. Being here tonight is one of those things. I didn’t want to do this. I could have gone months without doing this. I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t know what I was going to say. I didn’t know how it would be taken. I didn’t know how to communicate it or how to help in any way.
I had a sense that it was something that we needed to talk about and grow together in. But it was way out there, because I didn’t know what to do about it, and I frankly didn’t want to do anything about it. I wished it would take care of itself. I saw the need and I wanted it to solve itself. The process starts, and I bounce it off other different people and then we talk about it, and then we try to pull it together, and we were too busy last week, so let’s let it go for another few weeks. There it is out there, and it stays out there forever. It’s so easy that life can be that way. But everybody knows somebody that needs help with prayer. Go teach. Start there. There’s one thing you can do. Go teach. The other things I believe you’ll see this pattern developing where you don’t know how to go about it exactly, but you go forward like Peter and put your foot out on the water and test it and throw your weight out on it and go. That’s the only way to live. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to go forward and not drift aimlessly through our lifetimes as theoretical giants. We don’t need to be theoretical giants. Let’s be warriors. Take our little, five smooth stones and go kill the giants that laugh and mock at us.
