3/14/18 – Pastor Brian’s Blog –
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
Last Sunday began like any Sunday for me. I arrived at church around 5:30am to review my Sunday School lesson and my message for the morning service to make any last-minute tweaks that might be needed. I went through our song program and power point slide shows to make sure everything was working properly. With an exception of a glitch in the sound for the power point slide shows, which was quickly fixed, it seemed liked any normal Sunday.
People start arriving for Sunday School and the person working in the sound booth came to me and said, “The computer is frozen, and nothing is working.” Because I am a pastor, of course I only have Godly thoughts. So, my first thought was, “What is wrong with you, I just went through everything this morning and everything is working fine!”
The couple that usually runs the sound booth for us are the geniuses with all the equipment in the booth, but they have not arrived yet. So, responding to my first thought that ‘everything is working fine,’ I get into the sound booth to show this person that they must be doing something wrong, only to find out, she is right!! From my many years of experience working with computers, I knew just how to fix it: I rebooted it.
I was confident that a reboot would work. Until it rebooted, and nothing changed. I then thought I must have done something wrong, so I rebooted it again, with the same results. Again, from my many years of experience working with computers, I went to my second course of action (which always works) – find someone who knows what they are doing!!
Sunday School is now over, and it is time for the morning service. However the computer is still not working. Thankfully, our computer expert has arrived and is working on it. I am confident that he will fix it because God knows how much I have worked on this message this week, how many verses I am using, and He understands how the videos in my power point to tie everything together. And I know God doesn’t want people to go home without hearing this message!
So, we handed out hymnals to sing from because our song program is on the computer that is not working. To open the service I read… Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
Then we sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness” and the chorus goes like this:
“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
I can quote the verse from memory; I can sing the hymn without looking. But little did I know that on this day, God would require me to move these words from memory into personal application.
At this point I am trusting that Zak will repair the computer. We still have to do announcements, go over our memory verse for this week, take the offering, and we still have one more song to sing. Plenty of time! Yet as we get ready to sing the last song before the message, nothing has changed so I am praying, “God help me!!”
As the song is being sung, I am thinking, ‘I cannot give the message I have prepared, because it is tied too closely with my visual aids.’ So, we finished the song, I look at the sound booth looking for a big smile and thumbs up, only to see…nothing. Zak is still on the floor in the soundbooth trying to fix the computer.
Next, I walk down from the pulpit so that I am on the same level with the congregation, praying and speaking at the same time. I believe I know where God wants me to go, but to confirm that, I asked the question, “When you think of the Book of Romans, what passage comes to your mind?” I am thinking, ‘As soon as someone says the passage I am thinking of, that will confirm that this is the passage God wants me to speak on.’ People started to give me references, but no one gave me the reference I was thinking of. So, I kept asking! After 7 or 8 responses and no one gave me the reference I had in mind, God said, “Brian, just trust Me. Speak on the passage I told you to!”
You know I did. I trusted God; I allowed Him to direct my paths, and we saw God work. I received more positive comments on the message that God had just laid on my heart to share, than any message I have given for a long time. Was God telling me that I need to spend less time preparing, less time studying? Not at all. What God was saying to me was… Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
See, there comes a point in our walk with God, when memorization just doesn’t cut it. God wants that memorization to move from our heads into our hearts, and when God’s Word, or even when godly hymns move into our heart, we change. Sunday morning, I thought I was ready to preach; little did I know that on this particular Sunday, God had to work on me before I was ready to speak.
Maybe you are reading this blog today and you have far worse things going on in your life than giving a sermon without any notes. Maybe you are like David, with a giant in your life that wants to defeat you. Or maybe you are like Abraham, not knowing where God is leading you. Maybe you are like Lazarus’ family, and you have lost a friend or family member and you are devastated. Maybe you feel like Moses, and you are staring at an army behind you and a huge sea in front of you and you don’t know what to do. Or maybe you are feeling like Jesus, and you just had a close friend, someone you had invested your life in, betray you. It doesn’t matter what your situation is, the answer to all these situations is the same: God.
Maybe today, you need to memorize Lamentations 3:22-23… Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Or maybe you need to take time and sing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” not from memory but from the heart. I do not know what God has for you today, or what path He has allowed you to be on, but I do know this: He is crying out to you… “TRUST ME!!”
I did it last Sunday and not only did it affect me, but it affected those around me. I have no doubt if you do the same, you will see the same results.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
