Sending and Going

Somewhere in the world today God is changing the lives of His followers as He calls and sends those people on assignment for Him. It might be a college student who will hear the call of God to foreign lands in a quiet time this morning. It might be God's voice speaking to someone through a book as He calls them to leave the life they have known for a new life and a new assignment. The voice of God may speak through music. He may use people. The place God most often speaks to me is in the scriptures.

At this moment God is calling out to young men, young women, older women and older men and all others in between to go on mission for Him. For some this will mean living in primitive conditions.

For the past eight days my family endured life in a home with no a/c. This past Wednesday when the temperatures soared close to the century mark the house became extremely uncomfortable. All that night I tossed and turned. I had a fan blowing on me but I might as well as have had a blow dryer blowing hot air on me for that is what it felt like. I got up and tried to sleep on the floor in the living room under the ceiling fan but it did not help.

God is sending some of His followers into conditions just like this permanently and not for eight days. What amazes me is people are willing to go. Their love for God and commitment to obey His prompting make them willing to give up the American dream for God's dreams.

In response to what Jesus did for us on the cross shouldn't we all be ready to be sent and to go where ever He leads. There is an old song with that sentiment. "Where ever He leads I'll go. Where ever He leads I'll go. I will follow my Christ who loves me so, where ever He leads I'll go." We often act like that song and being sent are for all those other people. Not us. We are convinced God will never call us. He will never choose us. He will never send us. And the truth is that most times God does not call us or send us in some dramatic change in geographical location.

He does call and He does send in other ways. He calls us to be missionaries right where we live and work. He calls and sends us to ministries within the local church. He calls and sends His people on short term mission trips. He calls us to the hospitals from time to time to minister to the sick and ailing. He calls us to the homes of the grief stricken to comfort and console. He calls us to the lost souls of our communities to share a word of witness about Jesus.

Every so often God comes in a different form. At times God calls some of His followers to uproot, to follow Him, and to relocate their lives to places God directs. Though I have never been called to be a missionary, I have been called to be on mission for the Lord in several different cities from east Texas to west Texas and places in between. I have heard the clear voice of God calling me to follow Him even when it did not make sense and it required sacrifice. I have known the agony of soul of being sent from people I loved dearly to a people I did not even know. Such is the nature of truly being available to God.

I recently heard a commercial on the radio about the late pastor of FBC Dallas W.A. Criswell. God called and sent him to FBC Dallas while he was still relatively young. He was sent and he followed. God's assignment for him included remaining in that one church for fifty years. My pastor served my home church for thirty-four years. God sends some servants on assignments like that.

He also calls others to uproot frequently like he did with G. Campbell Morgan. He also surprises some after years in one place of ministry to be uprooted to serve elsewhere like He did with Jonathan Edwards and A.W. Tozer.

God gets to call the shots. He gets to determine the assignment and the length of the assignment. He alone reserves the right to call and to send. We have the responsibility to listen and to follow obediently.  Where are you being sent? Across the street and across the aisle or across the world? What kingdom assignment is God choosing you for? God is always sending His people but His people are not always going.

I exhort you to meditate on [Is 6:8] today and ask where God is sending you. God may reply by telling you that you are right where He wants you for now. You may on the other hand feel unsettled when He calls you to loosen your tent pegs as you get ready to be sent elsewhere. You could ignore such a prompting and reject His new assignment for you. You would not be the first. This is not the way of a true follower of Christ.

Years ago I received an invitation to preach a youth event at another church. I accepted and prayed and prepared for God to work among those students. At the time this church did not have a pastor. On Saturday afternoon the youth minister stopped by the home where I was staying and dropped a bomb on me. He told me many people were interested in my coming there to be their pastor. At the time I could not have been happier in the church I served. We had a great ministry and were loved by our flock.

When the youth minister left I wrestled with the Lord in prayer the rest of that afternoon. I ended up changing the message that night and preaching a message to myself from [Rom 12:1]. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Dozens and dozens of people responded that night coming to the altar. I could barely get off the stage. I went off to the side and knelt by the organ there. I prayed something like this, "God if nobody else in this room means this I mean it. I will lay my life on your altar. If you want me to leave where I am and send me here as the pastor of this church I give you my yes." Four months later my family officially relocated.

This summer while preaching a youth camp I had another one of those times with the Lord. The Lord stirred my heart as we sang a song about surrender. I got down on my knees and then bowed my face to the ground. I relived that scene near the organ. I recommitted my life to go where ever God might send me. In some ways such surrender is exciting and in other ways it is frightening.

God does the sending. We are supposed to do the going. So whether God is sending you to a new ministry within your church or to a new country, will you go. Isaiah made himself available to God. We often do that with stipulations. God demands unconditional surrender. For W.A. Criswell and my pastor that meant staying in the same place of ministry for decades. For others like Hudson Taylor that meant leaving his family to board a ship bound for China where he labored and suffered for Christ. God alone has the right to do the sending. Our responsibility is to do the going once we are sent.