The Risk Takers

June 9, 2002 - Community Chapel, Nashua, New Hampshire

Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 9:9-13

  1. Once upon a time there was a good man. He had a good family. He had good connections. He was living in a reasonably comfortable manner. He was abreast of the latest technology.

    His life was not in crisis. But deep in his heart there was a nagging uncertainty, the question he could not quite put into words. But the question was shaped something like this:

    IS THIS ALL THERE IS TO LIFE?

  2. Then one day this good man became aware that Almighty God was talking to him. Just how this awareness came about I cannot tell you. But plain as day, God was saying, "Well as a matter of fact, NO!, this ISN'T all there is to life! And if you are willing and obedient, I will show you exactly what your heart is seeking!"
  3. That day Abraham had a decision to make. He had to decide what was absolutely the most important thing in his life. The way the story goes, God said, "I want you to LEAVE . . . your country, your people, your father's relatives, and above all, I want you to LEAVE your right to try to tell ME what is right and wrong!

    "I want you to come and walk with Me. And if you do, I promise you I'll bless you beyond anything you can imagine!"

[Right here I want to ask some audacious questions:]

SOME QUESTIONS

  1. Does God still call people like He did Abraham? (Does he still promise He can give people exactly what their hearts are seeking?)
  2. How can we expect to HEAR God if He wants to speak with us?
  3. How can a person respond to God in 2002?

QUESTION NUMBER ONE: DOES GOD CALL?

  1. My "professional" answer- my "message" is YES! YES! You would expect a Christian minister to say God calls people. But I am convinced that God calling people is the basic theme of the Bible: "Adam! Where are you?" "Noah!" "Moses!" The EXODUS- right down to Matthew- the Bible's message is:

    DARE TO LEAVE THE SELFISH WAYS OF THE GODLESS (Psalm 1) AND STEP OUT ON A JOURNEY OF FAITH WITH ME!

  2. I believe my "message" but I want you to know MY PERSONAL ANSWER IS ALSO 'YES! YES! YES!' When I was living selfishly, and out of fellowship with God I am certain that God spoke to ME! Both by LOVE and by FEAR he showed me I needed what only He could give me.

QUESTION NUMBER TWO: HOW MAY WE EXPECT TO HEAR GOD?

  1. We have to listen. God can't teach us anything when we think we already know the answer. God can't talk to us if we are ourselves talking.
  2. To hear God speak there has to be some element of faith. Of TRUST! We have to come to the point where we say: if I know it is YOU, I will OBEY You! Our human relations have taught us to be careful- to not believe everything we're told; all well and good. But Abraham stepped out with God NOT KNOWING WHERE GOD WAS LEADING- ONLY KNOWING IT WAS GOD THAT WAS DOING THE LEADING.
  3. The "common sense" thing would seem to be to say, "Now God, let me see what you have in mind and then I'll say yes or no." But the attitude has to be instead: "God, if we know it is YOU, then we say "Yes!" already!" THAT is an attitude to which God will respond!
  4. To hear God speak sometimes we have to go against the current of what is accepted as Christian by many evangelicals. We have to take SELF off the throne, and forget about a Gospel that is JUST interested in SELF-fulfillment. God's way WILL deliver exactly what we are designed for- we are MADE for God, BUT HAPPINESS OR DELIVERANCE OR BECOMING FULLY HUMAN are not the GOALS we seek- they are the BY-PRODUCTS OF WALKING WITH GOD! There is no greater call than to be a friend of God: that's where Abraham was headed!
  5. These interim days are good days for Nashua Community Chapel to be LISTENING! If you LISTEN, if you ASK! If you cry out to God you will find that God has something vital to say.

QUESTION THREE; HOW MAY WE RESPOND WHEN WE HEAR GOD?

  1. We have to CHOOSE! We have to decide how important God is to us! Most people seem to want to "add God" into their schedule- and nothing much really happens. But God honors those who step out in faith like Abraham did, who say "I will absolutely obey God when He speaks to me!" ("I'll say YES, LORD, YES!- Earl Lee)
  2. Some time ago I opened my Bible to read and get ready to pray. The passage was I Kings 3, and I got as far as verse five (5) where God asks Solomon, who has just been newly crowned king, "Ask Me whatever you want Me to give you!"

    I stopped and I thought. Honestly now, what one thing would I ask of God if I knew he would grant me that one thing, and I did not know if he would grant me anything else. WHAT ONE THING IS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME?

    First I thought, "Lord, YOU tell me! YOU decide for me!" That sounds very pious, but somehow it didn't let me off the hook. I felt prodded. No- what really IS the most important thing?

    I was pleased that I didn't think of big bucks, or a palatial retirement home or material things- at least not "up front." After some reflection I realized that I wanted those things but they were somewhere "way down the list."

    I confess I did think of not wanting to come down to old age and find myself helpless, a burden to others. I thought what a pleasure it is to be able to preach and write and teach for years to come. But do you know what I finally decided was most important?

    When I was about six years old- this passage from Kings brought back a memory I hadn't thought of for a long time- when I was about six, a little boy evangelist singer traveling almost year round- a store owner- I can still dimly see the store in memory- a sort of hardware or Western Auto-type store with wide aisles- anyway the store owner took us, Mother, dad and me to this store after church one night. He opened the store, turned on the lights, and said to me- maybe six years old- "Now Sonny, you can have any one thing in this store that you want! Whatever you want- you can have one thing!"

    I walked up and down the aisles. I looked at bicycles and lawn mowers and garden furniture and clocks and house supplies and car radios, items big and small, expensive and relatively cheap. I never would have such an opportunity again.

    I was totally unaware of values, or of what my mother or father might need. This is a true story: I picked up a little wind-up toy, a painted tin car, made in Japan, worth less than a dollar in 1937. I'm not even sure why I remember so well, except I think my father was disappointed I didn't at least pick a bicycle or a scooter. But as I recall I was thinking a big thing wouldn't fit into the car anyway. I could have had any one thing up to many, many times the value of the thing I chose. But that was that. And what would you expect from a six-year-old?

Do you know what I decided was most important?

If we answer God's CALL in any lesser degree than saying from our hearts "I WANT TO BE WHERE YOU ARE! I WANT TO WALK WITH YOU!" then we are like that six-year-old boy in the hardware store. WE WALK OUT WITH STUFF WHEN GOD WANTS US TO HAVE IT ALL!

CLOSING

The Gospel story- the call of Matthew- different century- different circumstances- same God, same call: "Is this all there is to LIFE?" "NO! Come, follow ME!" And Matthew simply got up and followed Jesus!

Once there was a good woman. Her name was Esther. She was in church every Sunday. She was a good church member. But somehow she wasn't satisfied. She had that unspoken question: IS THIS ALL THERE IS TO LIFE?

Honestly I don't know exactly how she heard God say, "No! This ISN'T all there is!" I was her pastor- and her friend. But Esther seemed to say, "All right, Lord!" and as she followed God some rather amazing things happened.

[notes on telephone poles ... meals in front of city hall... Quincy Crisis Center... Mary Martha Learning Center, Hingham... $800,000 annual budget by the time she died (I was with her and her family then)... on-going QCC in her name: Esther Sanger, the 'Mother Teresa of the South Shore'.]

I'm no Esther Sanger, or Matthew, or Abraham. Neither are you. But the faith we follow is more than simply words and rules and little prayers we pray. Until we are walking with God we are missing what God wants us to be even if we are as rich as Bill Gates! And if we ARE really seeking to walk with God we will have everything we need even if we are shipwrecked or in prison or going through a family trauma or whatever!

Thomas Kelly wrote, in a wonderful little book called "A Testament of Devotion": (About God's Way, Thomas Kelly says:) "Its joys are ravishing, its peace profound, its humility the deepest, its power world shaking, its love enveloping, its simplicity that of a trusting child! It is the LIFe and POWER of Jesus of Nazareth.

And Jesus is calling YOU: DO YOU DARE COME WALK WITH ME?

Options before/with PRAYER

#484 - A Covenant Prayer (from John Wesley's Covenant Service)

A Capella Chorus "In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified" ("Your Church")