I. What if this morning you woke up to hear God’s voice distinctly calling you into the ministry?
-What would be your excuse? too young? too old? don’t know the right words? don’t know enough Bible?
-What if the disciples hadn’t followed?; or Moses hadn’t gone to Pharaohs? What if Mary hadn’t given birth to Jesus?
-What if the twelve had scattered but never gone and preached another word about Jesus?
-What if my Grandfather Rev./Dr.Dewey Whitwell hadn’t been a minister? What if Rev. Pleasant Whitwell (4th Great Grandfather on my mother’s side?) hadn’t been a Primitive Baptist Minister in Tennessee? What if my Great-Great Grandfather Captain John Wesley Shelton hadn’t been a minister? I liked finding him on the 1850 Census in Adams County, OH. His listed him, and his age and on a separate line it read "Minister of the Gospel". I think four of his sons became ministers. His grand-daughter, my Grandmother Edith Shelton married Rev Ernest Bradford. What if Ernest had not answered God’s call to preach? Or his two sons Rev. Orla Bradford and my father Rev Charles Bradford? -- Okay, maybe you get the point! There are few more ministers that I have found in my history, but thanks be to God, that faithful people, like Jeremiah have answered God’s call upon their lives.
The influence of my father and grandfather’s upon my own life and ministry I know is enormous! My own call to hear the gospel of Christ is certainly based upon their faithful witness, and that of my mother and grandmother’s. But they have not only influenced me, but how many countless lives have they touched, not in their name, but in the name of Christ! There are times I wished that I knew how many people my grandfather’s, father and I together have as they say: "hatched, matched and dispatched?" In other words, how many people have we baptized, married and buried? And I know that their influence on me, and their witness about the Lord Jesus Christ, is relevant to my own calling and willingness to step forward and serve the Lord when he called me into service.
And today, I want to honor that call, by remembering it, as I near the completion of my first ten years of pastoral ministry. And giving thanks to God for all that He has done!
My dad used to tell a story about a guy who went into the ministry, but his preaching wasn’t very good and his ministry wasn’t very successful. He finally was called on the carpet to examine the "fruits of his ministry" (as John Wesley would have called it). They pastoral review committee inquired of the man, "Tell us about how you were called". The man began to tell how one day out on his farm, the weather was nice, but everyone knew that a rain was coming, when all of a sudden he heard a voice booming from within "Go PC". He inquired of the Lord, "What do you mean?", but again all the farmer heard from within was "Go PC!". And so, explained the man, "I packed up and left my farm and began to "PC" - to "Preach Christ!". The review committee study his sermons; examined his ministry and gave him the following report: "Young man we agree with you, that on that day on your farm, just before a good spring rain, we trust that you did hear the voice of the Lord saying "Go PC!", but after that we wholeheartedly disagree with your interpretation of the Lord’s calling. We surmise, my good man, that when you heard "go PC" it was the Lord telling you to "go Plant Corn!".
II. Some fourteen years ago now, I began to realize that the Lord was calling me into ministry. Like Jeremiah’s call, I trusted that it came from the Lord, and I had a few excuses. Can the Lord really use me? I do have some skeleton’s in my closet, some past sins that certainly the Lord wouldn’t want! Did you ever notice that Moses’ argument to God why he couldn’t go to Pharaohs was not that "he had killed a man"? I didn’t have any seminary training, and it would have to wait! I was under contract with the U.S. Army, and God would just have to wait!...and the list goes on...Until I arrive in San Antonio Texas, and we are back home in the United Methodist Church, and my friend Rev. Sue White tells me about being a local pastor.
But I still had some excuses: But I am still in the military! That was until after Desert Storm they offer "early outs", except in my MOS (specialty). My Special Agent in Charge, My Commander, My BN Level Commander, even the Criminal Investigation Command all "non-concurred" on my request for an early out saying that "I was critical in a shortage MOS"... but the Department of the Army concurred and I was released in March or April of 1992, four years early. A year later, April of 1993 I was introduced to be the pastor of the Cotulla UMC, and this May marks the end of ten years of pastoral ministry for Laurel and myself. And I remain here in response to God’s call to PC! Preach Christ!
I am thankful for people like Paul and Silas; Peter; Jeremiah; Mary; Barnabas; Constance; Martin Luther; Lydia the seller of purple; John Calvin; John Wesley; Martin Luther King; Charlie Bradford; Billie Graham; Rev. Sue White; Bishop Joel Martinez who have heard God’s call upon their lives; saw his vision; and then gone forth and responded to it. And because of their willingness to answer God’s call, the Word of God has been proclaimed, and lives have been changed. In fact isn’t that what God told Jeremiah? Don’t worry about the words! I will give you the words! Proclaim my word, and the Spirit of God will take care of the rest.
Former Giants pitcher Dave Drevecky was to speak one night at a church. Dave really didn’t feel like speaking, but he had agreed and so he went anyways. Dave was still struggling over the loss of his pitching arm to cancer. "I felt lousy that night" he recalled. "I felt so unworthy to be standing there in front of all those people who looked up to me. If they knew what I was really like; the thoughts that went through my head, the words that had come from my mouth; they would get up and walk right out that door."
About five months later Dave was on a radio call-in show and a woman phoned in. She explained that her husband was at that Church that night, and he had come forward during the altar call. He was a thirty-four year old welder whose life had been a mess. That night he gave his life to Christ. She told Dave that in the next few months they began putting their marriage back together. He had been having an affair with another woman, but something in Dave’s story called him from that life, and he asked Christ into his heart and changed his life. The woman said that everyone around him noticed the change - people in the neighborhood; people at work. But no one noticed more than his wife.
She explained that tragically he had been killed at work when a truck struck him. But the wife said to Dave, "Those weeks he walked with Christ were the best weeks of our marriage, and the best weeks of my husband’s life." And she thanked Dave for being there that night and telling others about Jesus. Dave responded, "And to think, I didn’t want to go, and almost didn’t".
The bottom line is, faithful disciples answer God’s call. And when you do, God will use you, and you can rest assured that lives will be changed, and people will be saved." Paul may have had dis-figuring looks, and by his own account may not have been a persuasive speaker. Jeremiah too young! Moses stuttered and had killed a man. And we won’t even get into my faults and foibles....don’t go there... but when someone like Jeremiah is willing to be willing. Willing to be willing to be used by God... the grace of God we be overwhelming, when you simply answer God’s call upon your life.
How will you answer God’s call?.....
