Answering the call

I. What if this morning you woke up to hear God’s voice distinctly calling you into the ministry?

-What would be your excuse? too young? too old? don’t know the right words? don’t know enough Bible?

-What if the disciples hadn’t followed?; or Moses hadn’t gone to Pharaohs? What if Mary hadn’t given birth to Jesus?

-What if the twelve had scattered but never gone and preached another word about Jesus?

As of 2008, Billy Graham’s estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion.  That means that approximately 2.2 billion people have heard the gospel from Billy Graham’s mouth.  That’s hard to wrap your mind around.

Billy Graham has shared the gospel with more people than anyone else in history, but do you know who shared the gospel with him?

It actually is a series of events that has been traced over the years and starts out with one volunteer Sunday school teacher.  Someone shared this story with me years ago, and it impacted me greatly.

“You can count the apples on the tree, but who can count the apples in a seed?” goes the old aphorism.

So it is with the influence of a single person.

Take Edward Kimball, for an example. Never heard of him?  Rest assured – most people have never heard of him.

Kimball was a Sunday school teacher who not only prayed for the hyper boys in his class but also sought to win each one to the Lord personally.  He decided he would be intentional with every single last one of them.  Surely he thought about throwing in the towel.  If you have ever taught the Bible to young boys, you know that the experience can often be like herding cats.

One young man, in particular, didn’t seem to understand what the gospel was about so Kimball went to the shoe store where he was stocking shelves and confronted him in the stock room with the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  That young man was Dwight L. Moody.  In the stockroom on that Saturday, he believed the gospel and received Jesus Christ as his Savior. In his lifetime, Moody touched two continents for God, with thousands professing Christ through his ministry.

But the story doesn’t end there. Actually that’s where it begins. Under Moody, another man’s heart was touched for God, Wilbur Chapman.  Chapman became the evangelist who preached to thousands. One day, a professional ball player had a day off and attended one of Chapman’s meetings, and thus, Billy Sunday was converted.

Sunday quit baseball and became part of Chapman’s team. Then, Chapman accepted the pastorate of a large church and Billy Sunday began his own evangelistic crusades.

Another young man was converted whose name was Mordecai Ham.  He was a scholarly, dignified gentleman who wasn’t above renting a hearse and parading it through the streets advertising his meetings.

When Ham came to Charlotte, North Carolina, a sandy-haired, lanky young man, then in high school, vowed that he wouldn’t go hear him preach, but Billy Frank, as he was called by his family, did eventually go. Ham announced that he knew for a fact that a house of ill repute was located across the street from the local high school and that male students were skipping lunch to visit the house across the street. When students decided to go to interrupt the meetings of Mordecai Ham, Billy Frank decided to go see what would happen.

That night Billy Frank went and was intrigued by what he heard. Returning another night, he responded to the invitation and was converted. Billy Frank eventually became known as Billy Graham, the evangelist who preached to more people than any other person who ever lived, including the Apostle Paul.

You could continue following this trail and see where Graham and all of us started with the ministry of Jesus.  Think about how far-reaching Christ’s message has gone.

This fascinating chain of events was triggered by a Sunday school teacher’s concern for his boys.

The influence of my father and grandfather’s upon my own life and ministry I know is enormous! My own call to hear the gospel of Christ is certainly based upon their faithful witness, and and grandmother’s. But they have not only influenced me, but how many countless lives have they touched, not in their name, but in the name of Christ! There are times I wished that I knew how many people my grandfather’s,had touched with his gentle loving way f sharing about Christ. In other words, how many people have we baptized, married and buried? And I know that their influence on me, and their witness about the Lord Jesus Christ, is relevant to my own calling and willingness to step forward and serve the Lord when he called me into service.

And today, I want to honor that call, by remembering it, as I near the completion of my first 3 years of pastoral ministry. And giving thanks to God for all that He has done!

I heard a story about a guy who went into the ministry, but his preaching wasn’t very good and his ministry wasn’t very successful. He finally was called on the carpet to examine the "fruits of his ministry" (as John Wesley would have called it). They pastoral review committee inquired of the man, "Tell us about how you were called". The man began to tell how one day out on his farm, the weather was nice, but everyone knew that a rain was coming, when all of a sudden he heard a voice booming from within "Go PC". He inquired of the Lord, "What do you mean?", but again all the farmer heard from within was "Go PC!". And so, explained the man, "I packed up and left my farm and began to "PC" - to "Preach Christ!". The review committee study his sermons; examined his ministry and gave him the following report: "Young man we agree with you, that on that day on your farm, just before a good spring rain, we trust that you did hear the voice of the Lord saying "Go PC!", but after that we wholeheartedly disagree with your interpretation of the Lord’s calling. We surmise, my good man, that when you heard "go PC" it was the Lord telling you to "go Plant Corn!".

II. Some years ago now, I began to realize that the Lord was calling me into ministry. Like Jeremiah’s call, I trusted that it came from the Lord, and I had a few excuses. Can the Lord really use me? I do have some skeleton’s in my closet, some past sins that certainly the Lord wouldn’t want! Did you ever notice that Moses’ argument to God why he couldn’t go to Pharaohs was not that "he had killed a man"? I didn’t have any seminary training, and it would have to wait! I had a business and God would just have to wait!...and the list goes on...Until I One day There in my shop God got a hold of me so tight and i left it all just like the disciples to follow Christ to Preach repentance to preach Christ Crucified

But I still had some excuses: But I am still still have bill still have these shops still have this ranch still have this house I began to spend more and more time at the church and less time at work at the Ranch at Home. Confused divided within myself I didnt know what to do. in allot of ways i was very content with the way things were. I was a Sunday school teacher, I HELD A MENS BIBLE STUDY I WAS ON THE MAINTENANCE TEAM I FILLED IN WHEN THE PASTOR WAS AWAY I WAS GOING ON LOCAL MISSION TRIPS IT WAS WORKING FOR ME. UNTIL IT WASNT YOU KNOW GOD KNOWS ME BETTER THAN MYSELF AND HE KNEW THAT I WOULD NEVER GO OUT AND BECOME THE MAN HE CREATED ME TO BE WHILE O WAS COMFORTABLE. HE ALLOWED STRIFE AND JEALOUSY TO SEEP IN BY OTHERS IN THE CHURCH A RUMOR THAT I WAS TIRING TO TAKE THE PASTORS JOB STARTED AND I FOUND MYSELF ON THE OUT SIDE OF A HOME I LOVED SO MUCH I WAS DEVASTATED. BUT GOD HAD OTHER PLANS FOR ME HE WAS CALLING ME TO FAITH EVEN THEN AND I DIDNT KNOW IT HE HAD TO MAKE ME WILLING TO LEAVE HE HAVE TO MaKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE SO THAT WHEN HE CALLED ME I WOULD ANSWER.

I look at Moses the Prince of Egypt who had everything and God allowed adversity to move him to make him uncomfortable so that he would leave the comfort of Home so He could be used to come back one day and bring His people Home

I am thankful for people like Paul and Silas; Peter; Jeremiah; Mary; Barnabas; Constance; Martin Luther; Lydia the seller of purple; John Calvin; John Wesley; Martin Luther King; Charlie Bradford; Billie Graham; Rev. Sue White; Bishop Joel Martinez who have heard God’s call upon their lives; saw his vision; and then gone forth and responded to it. And because of their willingness to answer God’s call, the Word of God has been proclaimed, and lives have been changed. In fact isn’t that what God told Jeremiah? Don’t worry about the words! I will give you the words! Proclaim my word, and the Spirit of God will take care of the rest.

Former Giants pitcher Dave Drevecky was to speak one night at a church. Dave really didn’t feel like speaking, but he had agreed and so he went anyways. Dave was still struggling over the loss of his pitching arm to cancer. "I felt lousy that night" he recalled. "I felt so unworthy to be standing there in front of all those people who looked up to me. If they knew what I was really like; the thoughts that went through my head, the words that had come from my mouth; they would get up and walk right out that door."

About five months later Dave was on a radio call-in show and a woman phoned in. She explained that her husband was at that Church that night, and he had come forward during the altar call. He was a thirty-four year old welder whose life had been a mess. That night he gave his life to Christ. She told Dave that in the next few months they began putting their marriage back together. He had been having an affair with another woman, but something in Dave’s story called him from that life, and he asked Christ into his heart and changed his life. The woman said that everyone around him noticed the change - people in the neighborhood; people at work. But no one noticed more than his wife.

She explained that tragically he had been killed at work when a truck struck him. But the wife said to Dave, "Those weeks he walked with Christ were the best weeks of our marriage, and the best weeks of my husband’s life." And she thanked Dave for being there that night and telling others about Jesus. Dave responded, "And to think, I didn’t want to go, and almost didn’t".

The bottom line is, faithful disciples answer God’s call. And when you do, God will use you, and you can rest assured that lives will be changed, and people will be saved." Paul may have had dis-figuring looks, and by his own account may not have been a persuasive speaker. Jeremiah too young! Moses stuttered and had killed a man. And we won’t even get into my faults and foibles....don’t go there... but when someone like Jeremiah is willing to be willing. Willing to be willing to be used by God... the grace of God we be overwhelming, when you simply answer God’s call upon your life.

How will you answer God’s call?.....

You never know how much you may touch someone, maybe as a sunday school teacher, may be as a compassionate friend to someone who is in need, maybe as a prayer warrior, maybe as a preacher never doubt that God can and will use you that you may not see the fruits but they will in fact grow so walk by faith and not by sight

know that God has it

Its all in His hands

you can relax and take a deep breathe knowing he will work it all out