April 24, 2023
Download MP3 (right click to save)
Driving in major urban areas of America can be a challenge - especially if you haven't done much of it. But my ministry team member was doing a good job of navigating the Chicago area, driving me to a number of locations where I was speaking. In one case, he was following our local host who was leading us to a place where we had never been. Honestly, we had no clue where we were going without him. I got to telling my driver one of my many stories, and he even seemed to be enjoying it. We were in the left lane, and suddenly a car came up behind us in the right lane, flashing his lights. Then he pulled up next to us, waving his arm out the window. It was our host. Apparently, we hadn't been following him for quite a while. So he led us in a daring - maybe scary is the word - U-turn to try to get us where we were supposed to be.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Reason You May Be Lost."
I can tell you why we were lost. We were running ahead of the one we were supposed to be following. That may be why you're not ending up where you're supposed to go. You're running ahead of God - who you're supposed to be following. Obviously, you can't be following Him if you're getting ahead of Him. Right?
By the way, we didn't even realize we were headed the wrong direction. We would have eventually, but we would have been farther off course and it would have been a lot harder to get back on track. You may not even realize that you've left your leader, that you're proceeding on your own right now - in the wrong direction. You will eventually, when it's even harder to get back to where you're supposed to be.
Sadly, running ahead of God and ending up in a very wrong place is nothing new. The Bible gives us one revealing picture of it in Acts 7, beginning with verse 23. It's our word for today from the Word of God. The Bible says, "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites." Now, Moses is a Jewish boy who was providentially raised in the home of the Egyptian Pharaoh as part of the royal family. The Bible continues, "He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not." Instead, this attempt to be a leader for his people actually costs Moses their respect and forces him to flee Egypt for 40 years in the wilderness.
Actually, Moses had the right idea - he was supposed to be the deliverer for his people. But not yet. It wasn't God's time; it wasn't God's way. Moses was running ahead of the One he should have been following - and the result - disastrous. That might be where you're heading because you have not waited for your leader. Abraham and Sarah couldn't wait for God to give them their promised son in old age, so they figured out their own plan and started so much heartache. Over and over, God's children try to make it happen, and instead they just make a mess.
Could it be you haven't been keeping your eyes on the One that you're supposed to be following? Are you maybe running ahead of Jesus, trying to hurry things up - trying to make things happen? Maybe you didn't mean to run ahead of your Lord, but you have - and you're lost and you're getting "loster," whether you realize it or not. But right now, He's pulling up beside you. He's waving you away from the wrong away you're going; waving you back to going where He's going.
Keep your eyes on your leader, not your goal. Stay close to Jesus. Be patient and go at His pace, in His time. It's actually the fastest way to get where your life is meant to be.