Monday, April 10, 2017
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It was another crazy day in my life of crazy days. I was speaking in downtown Philadelphia early in the morning and then out in the suburbs later in the morning. The Billy Graham team members had organized all this and they arranged for the committee chairman to lead us from one meeting to another. The only way we could make both meetings was to race out of Meeting 1 and take the fastest possible route to Meeting 2. Well, we got behind the chairman and began what turned out to be a modern version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. This guy really knew how to get around that city! There was only one hope of getting to our goal, believe me. We just had to stay really close to the guy who was leading us.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Wherever He Goes."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Chronicles 23. There's a sentence here that just reached out of my Bible and grabbed my heart. It's buried in the story of young King Joash coming to power in ancient Judah. His father the king had died, and the king's mother made her move to get the throne. She destroyed the entire royal family of Judah - except for one. Another family member had rescued the baby of the family, Joash, and hid him away for years.
A godly high priest organized a revolt against the queen, because the wrong person was on the throne. And he gathered a force to surround Joash until they could eliminate the queen and put the rightful ruler on the throne. That's the context for this order to the men who were surrounding the rightful king. And, in a way, it's an order for all of us who call ourselves followers of King Jesus...the rightful King.. Second Chronicles 23:7 says, "Stay close to the King wherever He goes."
We live in a world where an evil pretender is running things. But we serve the rightful King, Jesus Christ, King of all kings. And our King will prevail. And what are our orders as His followers? To go wherever He goes. Not to go where we want to go just to ask the King to go there with us. No.
It's like that day when we were following our leader to our destination across the city. We didn't pick the route that looked best to us. In fact, we were totally open to whatever our leader wanted to do; to go wherever he went. Our plans and our preferences didn't matter. We were totally neutral about what route we took. Our job was to see where our leader was going, get behind him, and go there.
That is exactly what it means to be a follower of Jesus. His fundamental command is, "Follow Me." If you tend to be a rigid person, an independent person, a person with a mind of your own, or a control freak, well, you'll tend to have a strong agenda of your own. And you'll have a hard time submitting to Jesus' leadership, relaxing in His leadership. You need to begin each new day saying, "Lord, show me where You're going, and I'll get behind You and go there."
You need to know where the King is going with your career, with your business, with your son or daughter, with your husband or wife. Where's the King going with your ministry, with your future, with each decision you make? This is the great adventure of following Jesus. Yes, you make plans, always seeking where He is going. Yes, you organize. But you stand ready to change direction at any time because your King doesn't stand still. His leadership is like that man we were following through Philadelphia - it's dynamic, not static. Often surprising and often not predictable.
But our only hope of reaching our destination that day was to stay real close to the one who knew where we were going. And that's your hope of living as you were born to live. You cannot afford a day away from your King, a glance away from your Leader. What matters most in your life as a Jesus-follower is staying close to Him.
You serve the rightful King. And your mission is clear. Stay close to the King wherever He goes.