Go!
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· 12 viewsThis sermon is about hearing God's calling to go, and seek his guidance in how to Go. Not arguing with him, not sinfully making up excuses. But taking the necessary steps and going.
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When we typically look at the Great Commission there is something that has been romanticized about it. Something that is very simple and easy to hear. The first part is “Go” it is that simple, just go.
But go where and do what? Well go to all nations and make disciples. That is a cool idea and it seems easy, and it almost seems like there needs to be very little planning, very little training, just as simple as purchasing the next plane ticket to the first place you can think of and… going.
Maybe, we think, something a little more of a “Gideon's blanket” is needed, like putting a blindfold on and spinning around in a circle and pointing to a spot on the map and thinking to ourselves “that must be it!”
Then again maybe it’s the place that everyone else in our friend group, or youth conference is going so obviously that must be the place, right? Okay, I know, maybe a little more heroism is needed, we pick the one place where no one else has been able to go because the local tribe tends to kill outsiders quicker than you can say “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” but you are going be the person who changes it all! Unfortunately, we can see how situations like that have played out.
But despite this, we are “going” right? We are making disciples, aren’t we? The urge to go isn’t always a bad one. However, sometimes it is us and not God.
One of my favourite stories starts in Exodus 2:11-15
Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.
The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight.
The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”
Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.” And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well.
Moses clearly had it impressed on his heart that the Hebrews were HIS people. So when he went out to see HIS people and saw HIS people being mistreated he felt like he needed to rescue HIS people.
I like to think that because God knew what he was doing, and knew who Moses was going to be, he impressed upon Moses a sense of belonging to the Israelite people. Moses knew that somehow he needed to help HIS people. Unfortunately when he tried to help HIS people HIS way Moses blundered, and we know Moses committed a sin because he knew he had to make sure no one was watching and he knew he needed to hide the evidence. Sin always hides from the light. Moses’ consequences for his ill actions were not that serious for him, they were serious in the sense he killed someone. But God still had a redeeming plan for him.
How many of us have felt like God was telling us to do something, so instead of giving God the time of day to guide us through the situation we pursued it at our own pace and followed the timeline we decided it should work at?
From a young age, I always felt like I should be a pastor, I liked people, I loved God, and I was always excited to share the gospel. Then there was this one time, when I was in Wild Horse Plains Montana with the Discover program from Prairie Bible College. While there we were given the opportunity to lead a church service. It was good, we did worship, we did this weird silent skit of the resurrection. When I say weird, it was weird to me because it was way more charismatic than I was used to, but it was good because there was something powerful about the message that came through the skit. Initially I was asked to give the message, so I got to praying and I got to studying. When I prayed I asked that God would guide me to give a message that the people needed to hear and the message that began to form was one on communion, and how when we actually look at the definition of communion it calls us into a constant relationship with someone. I talked about how communion shouldn’t just be a once a month or once a week interaction between us and God instead it should be a reminder to have an every day, every hour, every minute, every second relationship with God. A constant relationship with God in everything we do, right down to our breath.
After the service, there was this one sweet old lady who came up to me and said, “that was exactly what this church needed to hear,” and then she left. Everyone else who came up to me that day said “how dare you!” or they said “God doesn’t speak to people like that anymore.”They were angry, and probably hurt, because here was this 18-year-old kid who told them to get their act together and start living for God. Telling them to stop living as superficial Christians.
Being 18 I was scared. I didn’t return to my bed that night, I stayed out in this field scared that I had sinned against God by preaching what I preached. Words from the congregants echoing in my ear “How dare you, you aren’t ordained?!” “Who gave you the authority to speak to us like that?!” Even some of my own classmates were upset with me. All I could hear in my head was the repeating of the anger. I didn’t hear what that one sweet old lady said to me. But as I cried out to God (literally) God reminded me that he is the one who ordains messages, and he had more for me to say. But I refused. At that moment I decided I would never EVER become a pastor, and I entered the wilderness. My wilderness.
Let’s continue Moses' story in Exodus 2:15-25
And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
When Moses arrived in Midian, he sat down beside a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came as usual to draw water and fill the water troughs for their father’s flocks. But some other shepherds came and chased them away. So Moses jumped up and rescued the girls from the shepherds. Then he drew water for their flocks.
When the girls returned to Reuel, their father, he asked, “Why are you back so soon today?”
“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”
“Then where is he?” their father asked. “Why did you leave him there? Invite him to come and eat with us.”
Moses accepted the invitation, and he settled there with him. In time, Reuel gave Moses his daughter Zipporah to be his wife. Later she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, for he explained, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Years passed, and the king of Egypt died. But the Israelites continued to groan under their burden of slavery. They cried out for help, and their cry rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
Many people look at Moses as running away, as this being a shaming, low event in his life. But what we tend to forget is “...God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28. How could being exiled to the desert be something that would be good for Moses? Well for starters he found himself a wife, and we all know that having a wife is an absolute blessing ALWAYS! Secondly, he found himself in the company of the Midianites. In this particular case, this was a very good thing. The Midianites taught Moses how to live in the desert and how to be comfortable in its terrain. God had sent him to the very people who could train him to be a strong leader in the desert.
Chelsea has often had the urge to go. She has been described by others as having a gypsy heart, always feeling the itch to go and see the next place. When Chelsea was 14 she went to Africa by herself. Well, she went with a youth ministry called Teen Mission. She went to a strange new place by herself and did what God called her to do at that time. Before going she had to prepare. Chelsea has always said to me that when she has felt the urge to go she has prayed, then she would take the necessary steps needed to go, and if it was in God’s will it would kind of just come together. Well, that's being modest, Chelsea would put in hours of fundraising, she would seek pastoral counsel, she would talk to her parents, and of course, talk to the mission she was going with. After all that work if things were still in place and she raised enough money, she would go.
Going doesn’t just mean we go and it will be hunky dory. It doesn’t mean we go and it's as simple as stepping on a plane. It means prayerfully taking the steps we need to, to get to where God is calling us to go. After Chelsea went to Africa she always vowed she would return, and she tried (prayerfully) when she was 15 but it wasn’t in God’s timing, so she tried when she was 16 and again it didn’t work out. Then when Chelsea was 18 she tried, prayerfully again, and she was able to go and help at the Watoto children’s home. Between the time of Chelsea being 14 to her being 18 God had made Chelsea into this wonderfully prayerful woman who would journal daily while praying. She walked through some hard points and persevered and it only made her stronger (or maybe more appropriately those hard points made her more reliant on God). Before going to Uganda when she was 18, Chelsea had gone to Prairie Bible College and gave God a good solid year of her life, devoting herself to just God. She didn’t even let this guy distract her although I was definitely interested. Then after she left Bible college and God had prepared her she was able to go to Uganda and it was what God called her to do, for that moment in her life.
Chelsea learned about how to ask God about the urges he put on her heart, take the necessary steps she needed to and then she learned to listen when God would say “not yet” or “yes now, go”. This has honestly helped me. When we were still in BC I felt, back in 2017, that God wanted me to enter into full-time ministry. I talked to Chelsea about it and she also felt we were being called into full-time ministry, so we began to pray. As full-time ministry positions presented themselves to us we would explore them prayerfully, I even went to Hermosillo, Mexico to look at a full-time ministry position, and while there I met a pastor who told me that he felt maybe I could be a pastor myself one day. This didn’t really resonate with me, because I had bad experiences from the pulpit before, so I wanted to avoid that. However, something about that stuck with me. When I got back to Canada I hopped onto the Greyhound and bussed up to meet a very pregnant Chelsea and our three kids, and I told her I really do believe we are being called into full-time ministry and Hermosillo must be it. But it wasn’t.
A few years passed, and a few more children added to our “quiver,” we were entering another hard point in our lives. I was being laid off from my $80,000 dollar a year job. As we prayed God would say “trust and wait” and so we would. Finally, as I was praying to God what am I supposed to do! God said, “Jesse, look at Associate Pastor Jobs I will show you.” To Chelsea, he simply kept saying “trust and wait”. So I began looking and praying, and Chelsea kept on trusting, praying and waiting. Eventually, God led us to Melville. God said “there” so we began to take steps prayerfully, and when we got to a barrier we would pray and God guided us through it, then we would get to another barrier and God would guide us through that one as well. Until, eventually, we were here.
It’s funny. When we are younger we liked to believe in a “Gideon’s” blanket effect, God showing us a sign. This is not honouring to God, or even trusting God. This demonstrates our reluctance to Go. I believe this is sinful. When we feel the calling to go we should PRAY. Then if we feel that this is indeed a calling, we should then make the necessary steps that we need too in order to follow through on that calling. Such as seeking advice from a pastor, getting a passport, and maybe getting your shots for things like Malaria. If through all the steps God keeps on opening doors, and you’re suddenly standing where God has called you, maybe that's what you’re supposed to be doing.
Testing the Lord your God is not what you’re supposed to be doing!
We actually see Moses setting out all sorts of Gideon’s blankets for God throughout Exodus Chapter 3-4. God graciously answers and Moses keeps on protesting! As we see in Exodus Chapter 4 verse 14, God only puts up with the foolishness for so long, we read, “Then the Lord became angry with Moses...”
When we feel a distinct urge to go, we should stop and pray specifically to ask God for guidance. Then with God’s guidance, we should move forward taking the appropriate steps to achieve what God is calling us to do. Sometimes God is calling us to serve at a Bible camp in Hermosillo or an orphanage in Uganda. Other times God is calling us to be someone we vowed we would never be like a Pastor. Other times God is calling you to be a light to your co-workers, neighbours, friends and family right here in Melville. Instead of testing God, it is time to get on your knees and ask him for guidance. And if he tells you to Go, then Go!