I don’t know how many times I have used Oswald Chambers’ devotional classic, My Utmost for His Highest. At least every three or four years I go back to it for resourcing my daily spiritual reading and always -- without fail -- I am ministered to, receiving challenge and insight not received before. I remember the experience I had the last time I used it.
The meditation began with this sentence from Hebrews 13, verses 5-6: “He hath said . . . so that we may boldly say.” Then came these two sentences: “My say-so is to be built on God’s say-so.” God says -- “I will never leave thee,” then I can with courage say -- “the Lord is my helper, I will not fear.”
I knew then that, sometime, I would preach on this theme: “God’s say-so” -- or God has said, so we can say. The writer to the Hebrews puts it in such bold relief. Listen to verses 5 and 6:
“For He has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’”
So I retrieved that idea as I thought about my last chapel service of the school year. Some of my students are graduating, so we will not break spiritual bread with them again on a regular basis. Not only do we want to send them forth with a loaf of bread for their journey, we want them to know there is a source of bread that will never be depleted. Like the widow of Zarephath, who kept going back to the barrel and finding flour there; like the Hebrews in their wilderness wandering, finding fresh manna every day, there is bread -- and there always will be. It comes from all sorts of places, in all sorts of loaf sizes and tastes -- but nowhere will it come with greater sustaining, inspiring, and direction-giving power than from God’s word -- the Book, our Book, the Christian’s Book. And what better example of it than God’s say-so.
Let’s look at this Hebrews passage and at a couple of other of “God’s say-sos” which enable us to make responses that shape our life.
I
God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” That’s God’s say-so, so we can say, “I will not be afraid.” This is a wonderful echo of Psalm 118, vs. 6: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Do you feel the power of that? Because God has said, “I will never leave you,” you and I can say, “I will not be afraid.”
Courage and certainty don’t come easy -- especially in the kind of days in which we live and the kind of days in which you are called to exercise your ministry. In a recent international conference on preaching, John Stott said, “In today’s culture, you cannot be a popular preacher, and faithful.” I think he is right. The lines are too clearly drawn -- and the chasm between enlightenment culture and Christian discipleship is too vast. You can’t be popular and faithful. Add to that the fact that the church is in crisis -- it’s a crisis of faith and identity. In most mainline churches, there are great cleavages that threaten division. This brings an ominous uncertainty that leaves too many paralyzed and afraid.
But God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can say with confidence, “I will not be afraid.”
In the local church where you serve there will be all sorts of anxiety-producing situations. I don’t need to name them -- you will discover them soon enough. You will wonder where God is and what the church is all about and where God’s faithful people are. I hope you will remember,
God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So you can say with confidence, “I will not be afraid.”
Courage and certainty don’t come easy in days like ours. Apprehension, fear, and our own frailty get between God’s say-so and our sense of security, peace, and hope. It’s easy when the difficulties come, and when our problems become monumental, to realize how feeble we are. It’s easy to lose sight of God. We need to remember God’s say-so: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
A little while ago, we sang, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come.” I’m not going to ask you to raise your hands as to whether you know what you were singing about: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer.”
What’s an Ebenezer? Did you come to that in any of your Old Testament classes? It’s in the Book of I Samuel, the seventh chapter. When the Israelites defeated the Philistines in a decisive battle, Samuel took a stone, placed it on that site to commemorate the victory, and he named it Ebenezer. He said, “Hitherto the Lord has helped us.”
So there is another strange word -- hitherto. That’s King James language. We don’t use that word any more. But that is what the hymn is based on -- the words “Ebenezer” and “hitherto.” In more modern language, it means “heretofore” or “thus far.” “Thus far the Lord has helped me.” Listen to the hymn again:
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand’ring from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed his precious blood.
(“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” words by Robert Robinson, 1758)
I may not be a good singer -- well, don’t say amen to that -- but I know a great hymn when I hear it, and that’s a great hymn. I hope you will keep that one as you fill your repertoire with all the wonderful modern praise music. It’s the kind of hymn you sing when things are crumbling around you, when fear threatens to bring your life to shambles, when apprehension and your own frailty cause you to know how vulnerable you are; and how, unless you get some help from somewhere else, you’re not going to make it. So you sing it: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come; And I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.”
You see, it is by the help of God that we have come thus far -- and only by His help, His good pleasure, His grace -- by the strength that He provides -- we will one day arrive safely home.
When we remember that, and when we accept God’s say-so -- “I will never leave you nor forsake you” -- then we can say, “I will not be afraid.”
II
Now another say-so of God that invites a response which shapes our life. God has said, in Isaiah 42, verses 6 and 7:
I’ve taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Did you get it? God has said, “I have given you as a covenant, as a light.” That’s God’s say-so -- therefore we can say, “I’m a part of God’s people and will serve God’s purpose and share God’s light.”
I read this story about Chuck Roae in Meadville, Pennsylvania, who was trying to show his friend Tony Bell how to use a banking credit card at the automatic teller of the First National Bank. But rather than taking his $100 deposit, the machine made some unusual noises and began spewing our five- and twenty-dollar bills at a rapid pace. The two men gathered up the money -- all $15,425 of it. En route to the police station to turn it in, they jokingly talked about heading for Las Vegas. Bill quipped, “Don’t you wish you weren’t a Christian?”
Hard to believe there are people like that still around. . . people who seek to be Christian in every circumstance of life.
God said, “I have given you as a light” so we can say, “I’m a part of God’s people and I will share God’s light.”
That’s the reason your going forth from this place is so important. The world desperately needs light. You go forth to be what this seminary has purposed as its mission:
“to prepare and send forth a well-trained, sanctified, Spirit-filled, evangelistic ministry” to spread scriptural holiness throughout the world.
You will be the evidence of how well we are doing in fulfilling our mission.
Have you seen the children’s movie, “Warriors of Virtue?” I saw it because I was writing a book on virtue. I also was intrigued by the fact that movie is the dream of four brothers -- all doctors -- Chinese -- who borrowed $35 million from their father to produce the movie because they believe the children of the world need to know that the battle for virtue is the most important battle raging in the world.
I didn’t get all the messages of the movie because the current genre of fantasy and eye-flashing action isn’t easy for me. But I did get one of the core messages, expressed by the Chinese master, creator and trainer of the Warriors of Virtue. “The only ills of this world,” he said, “are in your heart, where all the battles must be fought.”
Jesus said the same thing: out of the heart proceed the issues of life -- where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.
You will not be light for the Lord unless you have light, unless His light burns in you. Your biggest battle will be inside -- a battle to keep your part of the covenant, and remember your call, a battle to keep your heart pure, a battle to “be holy as our Lord God is holy.”
But don’t forget: it is not our battle alone. Listen to the promise again:
I’ve taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
Because God has said, “I have given you as a light,” we can say, “I am a part of God’s people and will serve God’s purpose and share God’s light.”
I believe that one of our problems is that we don’t glory enough in our status as Christians. Emerson Colaw, now retired bishop of the United Methodist Church, tells a wonderful story of claiming our status. For years he was the pastor of Hyde Park Community Church in Cincinnati. The Taft family of national and Ohio political fame was in the church. Mary was a six-year-old in the Taft family. During the first week of school, the teacher asked the students to introduce themselves, telling something about their family, what their parents did, and something about themselves. When it came time for Mary, she said, “I’m Mary Taft. My great grandfather was the President of the United States. My grandfather is a Senator. My father is a Congressman -- and I’m a Brownie!”
It was a marvelous celebration of identity. I hope you will remember and that you will rejoice in the fact that we are partners with God - that He has made us light.
. . . to open the eyes of the blind,
. . . to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,
. . . to bring light to “those who sit in darkness.”
Quite a partnership -- and quite a mission. Don’t forget, it is a partnership. What you accomplish and what you do alone will be laboring in settings where little or nothing seems to be happening for the Kingdom. You will know loneliness and isolation in rural settings where the population is dwindling and you wonder if the doors of the church can stay open much longer. Or, you will be in an inner city where the lives of people are being torn apart like the social structures that are crumbling around them. You will wonder how your tiny fellowship of the faithful can withstand the principalities and powers of darkness which seem to be in control.
No matter where you are, there will be times when you will be lonely and afraid; you will be frustrated and feel like a failure. No signs of Kingdom triumph will be present. You can labor on, empowered by the Holy Spirit, if you will remember that what you accomplish and what you do alone is not the measure of Kingdom reality. You are a part of a larger reality. And here and there, now and then, that reality breaks forth in full force. Maybe not in your place now -- but you are still a part of it, with others who keep the covenant. You are partners with God. He has made us to be light.
So don’t forget: the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most liberating power in the world. We are the recipients of that Gospel, and partners in sharing it. We dare not keep it to ourselves.
Have you heard Professor Tuttle’s story about going into a prison one day to witness and preach? He had the unutterable joy of leading a prisoner to profess his faith in Jesus Christ. It was a genuine conversion, one of the most dramatic Bob had ever seen. This man had spent 28 of his 44 years in prison. His name was Louis Albert Dobey, and he became a Baptist preacher.
The next afternoon after this encounter, Tuttle went back to the prison to visit with this man, thinking that he would kinda “finish him up” -- add some more substance to what had taken place. When he arrived at the cell block, Dobey was standing at the bars. He said to Tuttle, “I lay awake all last night thinking about what has happened and I have concluded that it takes at least 25 encounters with people who witness to us about Christ before any of us ever accept Him. And I don’t want you to think that you did it. There were 24 other faithful people that came before you.”
Tuttle broke down and cried. He knew he had been feeling pride in what he had done, thinking that he had done it, that he had brought this person to Christ. He confesses now that the confrontation of that prisoner has shaped his way of doing evangelism ever since.
You see, none of us have to do it all. We plant the seed, somebody else waters, and eventually someone will do the harvesting. You can relax in your witness -- knowing all you have to do is be faithful, share what Christ has done for you, and remember the Lord has said, “I have taken you by the hand and will keep you. I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.” Because God has said that, we can say “I’m a part of God’s people. I will serve God’s purpose and share God’s light.
III
Move now to one other of God’s say-sos . . . so vital to you personally and so absolutely essential in your proclamation of the Gospel. In Isaiah 1:18, God said, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Because God has said that, we can say, “I will not allow shame and guilt to limit and ruin my life.”
That’s what this table of bread and wine is all about. Nothing plays havoc in our lives more than shame and guilt. And we all know the power of it. We become aware of how far off the path we’ve strayed, how cold and hard we have been to someone we love, the harm we’ve caused, the lost moments and lost opportunities. All of that brings all sorts of emotion: guilt, grief, shame, and anger. It can cause us to move into depression. But the good news is it can also bring us to a spiritual place as well -- a place of new awareness. If we will remember God’s say-so: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool,” then we say, “I will not allow sin and guilt to limit and ruin my life.”
There will not be another message that the people in the congregation where you serve will need more than this one. It is the ultimate message of the Gospel -- the message of the cross.
There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, but bearing a great truth whether apocryphal or not. When Abraham Lincoln’s body was brought from Washington to Illinois for burial, there were special ceremonies in the cities through which the train passed. The casket was carried in a procession through the streets. It is reported that in one of those cities, an African-American woman stood on the curb and lifted her little boy as high as she could above the heads of the crowd. As she held him there so that he could see, she was overheard saying to him, “Take a long look, honey. That man died for you.”
The New Testament and the Christian Gospel have the singular concern to lift us above the things that could crowd it from our view and point us to the cross, saying, “Take a long look. He died for you.” So, “though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow -- though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool.” Because God has said that, then we can say, “I will not allow shame and guilt to limit and ruin my life.” That’s God’s transforming “say-so” to you, and it is the powerful message you have for those to whom you minister.
Go back to our Ebenezer hymn. One of the verses we sang goes:
O to grace how great a debtor,
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wand’ring heart to thee;
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.
God’s say-so of forgiveness in Jesus Christ allows us to sing that with meaning.
I suppose we could go on and on -- and I invite you to do that on your own. Find God’s say-sos in Scripture, and reflect on what you can say and what you can be because of what God has said.
Let’s rehearse:
1) Because God has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” we can say, “I will not be afraid.”
2) Because God has said, “I have given you as a light,” we can say, “I’m a part of God’s people; I will serve God’s purpose and share God’s light.”
3) Because God has said, “Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow -- though they be red like crimson, they shall become as wool,” we can say, “I will not allow shame and guilt to limit and ruin my life.”
I close with this -- a witness I invite you to make your own:
I was regretting and worrying about the past and fearing the future. Suddenly the Lord spoke to me: “My name is ‘I Am.’ Do not live in the past, for I’m not there. My name is not ‘I was.’ Do not live in the future, I am not there. My name is not ‘I will be.’ Meet me in this present moment, for my name is ‘I am.’”
That’s God’s ultimate say-so. “I AM.” Therefore we can claim His promise now, this very moment, and always. We will never be where God is not. We will never have a need that God cannot meet.