Monday, July 26, 2004
Telephone etiquette is usually one of the last things children learn - if they ever learn it! In fact, I sometimes kind of cringe when a child answers the phone. You never know if they're going to hang up, or if they're going to yell into the phone, "Hey, Mom!" or if they're just going to put down the phone and forget to tell anyone that you're waiting. Ah, but the daughter of a friend of ours - she is a pleasant exception. The family visited our office a while back, and when they got home, I called and the little girl answered. She's so polite, she's so coherent, she's so competent. I said, "Hey, girl, how would you like to be my secretary?" She must have seen how crazy that job is when they were in our headquarters, because she answered immediately. Oh, not with a yes - not with a no. She just said, "Uh, how about my brother?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How About My Brother?"
Our word for today from the Word of God is in Isaiah 6:8. And it's God's question 27 centuries ago. It's His question still today. He says, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I. Send me!" See, God has a lot of people who need to be loved out there - need to be listened to, who need to be told about the love that His Son showed by dying their death penalty right on the cross. There's too many people looking for love in all the wrong places, aren't there? Too many people giving up, living self-destructively, hurting themselves, hurting other people. There's too many people going into eternity without a Savior.
Isaiah's answer ought to be ours: "Here am I. Send me!" Instead we say, "Here am I. Send him. I support him. Uh, how about my brother?" See, Moses was told that God was coming down to rescue his suffering nation, and then Moses was going "Great!" And then God says, "I am sending you." And Moses said, "Oh, please send someone else!" Now, you are not going to have any peace until you say what Isaiah said; you'll have no fulfillment. You can't delegate spiritual responsibility for the people in your world. God is asking you to step up. Your family needs a spiritual leader, Dad. You say, "Well, how about my wife?" No, the buck stops with you, man.
That ministry needs leadership. God's saying, "I want you to do it." Someone's son or daughter needs to spend their life reaching the lost, and maybe you're saying, "Lord, how about somebody else's son or daughter?" Someone needs to tell the people in your neighborhood about Jesus, the people where you work, where you go to school. You can argue with the Lord, "I'm inadequate, I'm not trained, I'm not ready, there's someone better." But the Lord of the Universe has put you in the position to make the difference for them. He said to Moses, "Who made mouths?" This isn't something you'll do for Jesus. This is something Jesus will do through you. When God is asking you to step up to spiritual responsibility, He means you!
My young friend who answered the phone didn't want the responsibility I offered her, but she didn't say no. She just tried to pass the buck. Maybe that's what God's been hearing from you. Not a "no" to his work, but not a "yes" either - a "Try somebody else, Lord." He doesn't want someone else. It's your heart He's knocking on. It's your opportunity to serve the King of Kings. It's your assignment to carry out, and this is your day to say, "Dear Lord, here am I. Send me!"