He Sent Me

Then  I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here am I.  Send me.' ' [Is 6:8]


I love that verse. I have it highlighted in my Bible with each phrase circled and notes written in the margin. The left hand column is yellowed from my thumbprints from years of preaching and teaching from this passage. That was not always the case.

I never truly considered that verse until I was in my thirties. I sat in a breakout session of a conference where a man taught on Isaiah 6:8. I had an encounter with God in my chair. Only weeks before the conference a college classmate I had invited me to join a team for a  mission trip he planned to Cuba. I had never been on  a mission trip in my life.

Sitting in that breakout session God captured my heart. He wanted to send me to Cuba. Not long after that breakout session God captured my heart while prostrate in prayer. The Lord broke my heart and for the first time it dawned on me that there are three sides to that verse. God is inviting people to go. There are those who are pleading with God to send help. Finally there are those who feel called and who volunteer to be sent.

I went to Cuba. God stretched me way out of my comfort zone. I stayed with a pastor in a town of 80,000 people who could barely speak English. Nobody on our American team stayed with me. I lived in primitive conditions for ten days. I ate that they ate, slept where they slept, and bathed where they bathed. I preached in three churches through an interpreter and in the end 50 people trusted Christ as their Savior. God sent me to Cuba.

Over the years God sent me to several states to preach youth camps and revivals as far away as Portland Oregon. Around 2006 God started sending me and a team from Paradise, TX to the small town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan in Canada to help a church plant there. After years of trips, prayers, and labor God called a pastor to that church and they are thriving.

One of the reasons I love Isaiah 6:8 it the sense of adventure in that verse. Casting caution to the wind you hear a call from God and you step out in faith and go. There are unknowns. There are often risks associated with going as you drop your nets to follow Jesus. I promised God years ago that I would go wherever He wanted to send me. I am always siting on go ready to depart for the next adventure.

That is until December of 2010. Brenda and I were enjoying the fruit of a very successful ministry. We were coming off the high of a great summer revival where dozens of people were saved. One simple text message changed everything. That text message moved me to start praying and seeking God. I spent hours seeking the Lord during the next seven months and one message surfaced over and over again. FOLLOW ME.

Those of you who know this story know I read that phrase in numerous Bible passages, in books, Bible studies, and even heard it in a song on the radio which became popular. I seldom got in my truck to make hospital visits that I did not hear that song. I even heard it once at a barber shop. The guys who put messages on the church marquee sign even put up the phrase "Follow Me" one week.

After much soul searching, hundreds of hours of prayer and scripture reading, it appeared God arranged some circumstances that influenced me to believe He wanted to send me to start a church in Paradise, TX. I lived through that season with a mixture of excitement for the adventure and absolute terror of giving up our blessed life in Seminole, TX.

One Saturday I went to my office to be alone. I opened my Bible and started reading in Matthew 9 and the phrase "Follow Me," jumped off the page. It stopped me in my tracks. I prayed about leaving and starting a church and shrunk back in fear and unbelief.

At that point I got up from my desk and began perusing the books on my shelves looking for anything to get my mind off of "Follow Me." A book titled, Upside Down Church, caught my attention. I did not even know I had the book. The book had to be one I inherited from another pastor. I sat down and started reading it and for the second that time that morning got stopped in my tracks. I won't bore you with details but suffice it to say it involved starting a church and used my favorite scriptures about what the model church should look like from [Acts 2:42-47] I knew at that point God was sending me again.

July 21, 2011 is forever etched on my mind. That is the day Taylor and I drove out of Seminole with our clothes for our new adventure in Paradise. He came along due to the start of football practices. Brenda and the rest of the boys stayed behind hoping to sell the house before the start of the school year. I left town with no place to live other than the offer to stay in a R/V that would be my home for the next three months. I had no salary and left anticipating needing to find a job. I received a phone call on the drive that day from a lady in the core group of the new church telling me the group had gotten together and determined me they could pay what amounted to about forty percent of what I had made in Seminole. It did not matter. God sent me and I determined to follow.

I will also not forget July 31, 2011.That is the first day Faith Community Church met in a daycare. We did not even have chairs. We brought lawn chairs and set them up in a nap room in the daycare. We did not have music. We had a dream and on that exciting day we overflowed the nap room and ran out of chairs. People had to stand around the walls and some in the kitchen . We outgrew the daycare on our first Sunday. With that we were off and running.

I learned during this time that while my family had been gone from Paradise three different ladies were praying, independent of one another, asking God to bring my family back. None of the three knew the other two were praying. This all took place during the seven months I started getting the "Follow Me" messages.

The following week we moved to the junior high cafeteria and after months we moved again across the street to the high school cafeteria. Our students met in a gymnasium and when it got too hot in there at the football stadium. Six months after that we moved to the warehouse where we still meet to this day.

There were good days and then a season of testing came that  nearly ruined me. Attendance dropped. Offerings plummeted. Staff members left. I thought I had made a mistake. For over two years I convinced myself that I made a mistake. I believed I had sent myself and God had not sent me. As things worsened I convinced myself I had made a huge mistake. Dreams were shattered. Faith got crushed. I wanted out. Then I entered the long dark night of the soul.

Fast forward to this morning. I played a sermon as I sat at my desk. I did not know the subject matter or the text for that message when I pushed play. Turns out the text was [Is 6:8]. I was all ears. During that message I relived everything I have written above. What happened next stunned me. Before listening to that sermon I prayed for an encounter with God. Did He ever deliver.

God reminded me that He sent me here to Wise County. He chose me for this place, this church, and for this season. There is no guarantee that He will not send me elsewhere later in life but God sent me here. I did not choose this path for myself. I did not invent this call. God called. God sent. God invited. God planned. God initiated. God heard those three ladies praying and God connected those prayers to my family. God sent us here. We answered and followed.

It has not been easy. I've never tackled anything more difficult. Yet, there is assurance God sent us here. That brings peace. I rejected that truth. I convinced myself God did not send me here. I even rebelled against it wanting and trying to leave. I ignored the fact God sent me here.

This morning I had to repent and embrace the fact God sent me. For better or worse God sent me. If Faith Community Church flourishes or flounders I have peace God sent me here.

I want to leave you with two questions. Where has God sent you? Where has He chosen for you to plant deep roots? Even if the ministry is hard and lonely did God send you there? If so only He has the right to call you leave there. Where has He planted you to be His missionary? In what neighborhood, in what community, in what job, in what school, on what team?

My son Taylor is a missionary on the Howard Payne University Football team. Tanner and Tucker are missionaries in Paradise High School and on the Paradise Panther football team. Turner is a missionary at Paradise Junior High. Brenda is a missionary on her job. I am a missionary to the whole community. Where has God sent you to be His missionary.

Finally, I would ask where is God sending you in the future? Do you feel a call on your life like I did when I read, "Follow Me?" Has God used Isaiah 6:8 to arrest your attention and wake you from the slumber of your current comfortable life? Is God putting a new call on your life to follow Him to a new destination and to join Him in a new adventure in ministry. He is calling some. He is sending some. I know He sent me.