By Pastor Greg
In 1966,
Don Knotts starred in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. It’s the story of Luther Heggs; a typesetter
for a small town newspaper in Kansas who is given a great opportunity. Unfortunately,
this great opportunity would take an enormous amount of courage on Luther’s
part. He would have to spend the night
in a haunted house. However, Luther was
a scaredy cat. He was scared of the
haunted house. He was scared to talk to
girls. He was scared of strong men. He was scared of his own shadow. He was scared to talk in front of people (Show Clip).
Luther had been given a tremendous
opportunity to speak at the Chamber of Commerce Annual Picnic in Rachel,
Kansas. What an honor. However, for a nervous, timid man like
Luther, the idea petrified him. He even
asked himself, “Who are you, Luther Heggs, to be a guest speaker”. This is what happens when we try to do
something in our own strength.
Last week we talked about the call
God placed on Nehemiah’s heart. When God revealed the situation in Jerusalem
to Nehemiah he knew something needed to be done, he knew God had placed him in
the king’s palace for this very reason, and he knew he was the one God was
calling to get involved. But Nehemiah
doesn’t walk up to the king that very day and explain his calling. Nehemiah waits four months before an
opportunity presents itself to share this calling with the king. It is during this time that God was at work
preparing Nehemiah to serve (read Nehemiah
2:1-8).
Nehemiah had waited before he spoke with the king. He received the news and the calling in December but didn’t speak with the king until
April. And I think there are lessons you
and I can learn from this waiting time; this time between calling and
serving. Before Nehemiah began doing
what God had placed in his heart, Nehemiah prayed. Based on this prayer, there are three things
that troubled Nehemiah’s heart.
1) It’s clear Nehemiah realized that
to accomplish this calling, certain
things would need to happen, such as the king agreeing to let Nehemiah take
some time off. 2) If Nehemiah were to
accomplish this calling, the people in Jerusalem would have to be willing to
cooperate. And Nehemiah would need an
official document from the king signifying that he had permission to rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem – which actually meant that the king would have to
rescind an earlier decree (see Ezra 4:21).
Truthfully, these were enormous
obstacles. But it was not just the
obstacles that stood before Nehemiah. He
wasn’t overly confident about his ability to accomplish God’s calling in the
first place. Nehemiah knew that not only
did God need to take care of all the other obstacles that stood in the way, but
3) his fears needed to be conquered as well.
Nehemiah realized that he was taking an enormous step of faith. And part of the preparation that needed to
happen was for Nehemiah’s faith and dependence in God to grow. There would come a time when all his skill,
all his experience, and all his knowledge would not be sufficient. He would have to take a bold step in blind
obedience. It was either back down from
this calling and remain troubled, or speak up in faith; trusting that God had
indeed been preparing the king’s heart all along. You can see the lump in Nehemiah’s throat
when the king asks what’s wrong (Nehemiah 2:2).
You can feel the great leap of faith Nehemiah is about to make through
his short prayer just before he answered the king (Nehemiah 2:4).
Like Nehemiah,
we feel God tugging at our heart. Yet
even before we begin serving, we are convinced that it will never work. We are convinced
that we will fail. We are sure that God
has asked the wrong person. However, I
think we feel this way because we have our eyes fixed on the obstacles and not
God. Too often we focus on our
weaknesses and not God’s strength. Too
often we rely on our present faith instead of allowing God to strengthen and
stretch our faith for the task He has given us.
It seems a bit strange to me that
we would question the wisdom of God; that we doubt His power and grace. When you consider that the creator of the
universe, the Great I Am has placed a burden in your heart (that He has called
you to a task or a ministry), do you really think He is unaware of all the
obstacles that lay before you? Do you
really think He is unaware of your limitations and weaknesses? Is He surprised by the shallow depth of your
faith?
Maybe this is why many people ignore
God’s call in their lives. Looking toward the desired results, they see nothing
but a mountain of obstacles. Oh, they’ve
heard the call. They’ve felt the tug in
their heart. But there are just too many
things that stand in their way. The
sacrifices are too great. They feel
unworthy and unequipped for service. Obedience
to that calling would take a tremendous amount of faith. So they attempt to ignore the call. But no matter how much they struggle to
silence the call, it will grow louder and louder each day. Nothing will drown out the voice of God. And in the end the burden becomes so great
that even those around them can see that something is wrong (think about how
the king noticed Nehemiah’s troubled look).
People who continue to fight God’s calling are not fighting with
themselves; they are fighting with God, resisting His call, and refusing to be
changed.
So the Lord has placed a burden in
your heart. He is calling you to serve
in some particular way. Naturally you
are hesitant. It’s normal to feel unworthy and undeserving. God chooses to work through ordinary
individuals with weaknesses and failures (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-29). It’s also normal to have your faith tested. This isn’t the boss asking us to take on new responsibilities at work. This is Kingdom work. So what then should we do when God invades
our life? 1) We need to spend time in
prayer seeking God’s direction. How will
He accomplish this task through us? What
must we do to fulfill His calling in our
lives? 2) We need to spend time with God
seeking His instruction. Are there
attitudes and behaviors that need to change to
make us more fit for service? Do we need teaching or training or experience
before we begin to serve? 3) We need to
realize that God’s calling is also an opportunity to strengthen our faith.
To ignore God’s call will lead to
misery and distress. We will spend a
lifetime wondering what might have happened if we had obeyed. Yes, the idea of obeying God’s call is scary.
Serving will involve sacrifice.
And obedience will test our faith.
But after all, we are considering doing the work of the Lord. The calling will break our heart. The serving will test our faith. We would be deceived to think otherwise.
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