March 3, 2020
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For some people, a long drive is anything more than an hour or two. Over the years for my wife and me, well, it just had to be many hours before we could call it a long drive. Oh, good night, I think back! We've driven so many marathon trips over the years and, for the most part, we've enjoyed it...if we traveled together. It's not fun driving a long haul alone. In fact, unless you're a professional long-hauler, it's not even safe to drive a long trip alone. It never is a good idea to nap and drive simultaneously I believe. If you really want to cover a lot of miles, take somebody with you. You can go a lot longer. Oh sure, that second person might slow you down a little sometimes, but hey, they're worth it. There's an old African proverb that says it pretty well: "If you want to travel fast, travel alone. If you want to travel far, travel together." That's cool, huh?
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Travel Far."
Of course, that proverb applies to much more than just a long-haul drive. You need to travel together with others for most of life's journeys: physical journeys, emotional journeys, and spiritual journeys. You'll just get a lot more done together.
That was one of the secrets of the survival and the amazing success of the first followers of Jesus Christ. They were new believers trying to stand for Christ in a city that was very hostile to anything about Jesus. They were a tiny minority. The odds were against them, but they won big-time!
Well, here's our word for today from the Word of God - tells us how they did it. Acts 2:44 says, "All the believers were together and had everything in common...they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Did you catch that powerful word that was repeated three times in that passage - together! They traveled a long, long way because they traveled together.
How about you? I wonder if you tend to be more of a Lone Ranger type, doing it by yourself? You may travel fast, but you won't be able to travel nearly as far as you could teamed up with others. How about your church? How about your ministry? Are you trying to do Jesus' work by yourselves or are you forming partnerships with other believers in your area?
The lost world around us doesn't understand why we can't work together. They seem to understand our Lord's heart for us better than we do. After all, Jesus prayed, "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me" (John 17:23). That togetherness we read about in Acts 2 was the answer to that prayer.
But what about where you are? Are believers together? Are you all in your silos? You know, kind of all about your own turf? Are you separated by denominational turf, by neighborhoods, by racial backgrounds, by doctrinal differences, jealousies, or by leader's egos? We could go so much farther in rescuing the dying people around us and being taken seriously by a lost world if we'd just get together and travel together!
But getting together may start much closer to home for you. In fact, it may start at home. Maybe your family has become a group of Lone Rangers, each going in their own direction, each going it alone. That's wrong, and it's dangerous.
Are you willing to make whatever sacrifices you have to, to try to bring them together? It has to start with you. Or maybe the family of God you're a part of, a church, is more apart than together honestly. What is dividing you is probably nowhere near as important as the name and the cause of Christ that you have in common.
The journey is just too long, the challenges are just too great for you to keep going it alone. If you want to travel far, travel together.