You Were Born To Do This

It was the last night at camp. I stood off the right side next to the wall deep in prayer in a room with a couple hundred of students and adults. The weight of the message God put on my heart moved me to prayer. All those students. All of God's truth. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all about collide  with the truth of His word and all the lives in that room.

For several minutes I alternated between singing the worship songs and more prayer for a real move of God. I silently prayed, "Lord please touch my mind so my thoughts will be yours. Please touch my mouth so you can speak through me. Please touch my heart so I can feel what you feel."

Then a familiar voice whispered in my left hear, "I am so glad you are here. You were born to do this." The words penetrated deeply. Tears trickled. The power of those words, "You were born to do this," coursed through my soul. In that moment I felt humbled that God would choose a nothing boy from deep east Texas to preach His word. Many thoughts crossed through my mind from growing up as a child, getting saved as a teenager, going off to college and all the places I have been allowed to preach over the years. And there I stood in Panama City Beach, FL as the Laguna Christian Retreat Center where I have preached numerous other times feeling unworthy yet resolved.

So many things went through my mind in those few moments after hearing that message. I thought of my first sermon at the Woodlawn Baptist Church in Lufkin, TX before about a dozen students. The whoever sermon lasted seven minutes. I thought of preaching before just a handful of people in my living room back in Hudson, TX, about preaching before several hundreds at different youth camps over the past two decades, and even those few occasions when God has allowed me to preach before over a thousand people. I have preached in backwood churches and metroplex mega churches.

Two things are still true after all these years. God does the work. God provides the opportunities. He opens the doors. He sends the invitations. He points out the messages and scriptures to share. He does the convicting, the encouraging, the saving, reviving, and restoring, I am only a vessel. The second true thing is I definitely was born to do this.

No matter what my emotions and mental state are when I have step up to teach and preach I come alive. It is supernatural. I get caught up in the moment. It is like I feel the truth of God's word deep in my soul. I am not just preaching information. I am not making speeches. I am preaching. I am teaching the life chaining messages from God's word. In those moments I get so caught up in the message I lose track of time, distractions, and my personal cares, all for delivering God's message to help people.

That message in my left ear was a clear word from God. It caught me off guard. I had not expected to hear from Him so clearly right before I stood one last time in front of those students. His message moved me deeply. Yet, that message came from Eric Adcock, my long time friend and college roommate. In that moment he might not have known it but his words were the words of God to my ears and heart.

What were you born to do? God had intentional purpose for creating you. You were intelligently designed. You were crafted with care. God put you on planet Earth to serve Him in some capacity. Some are nurses, EMT's, law enforcement officers, electricians, carpenters, welders, administrators, teachers, cooks, leather craftsman, jewelers, coaches, physical therapists, artists, musicians, and more. God put you on this earth for some reason. I hope you discover it. I hope you expend your days doing it. And when you are in the middle of that task I hope God whispers to you, "You were born to do this."

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
¹⁰  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.