Do Something Stupid
Have you ever felt like God wanted you to do something, and then you did not do it?
I feel like all to often we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to guide us like we should…
Oh, I think that he tells us what to do many times, but we just refuse, we do not act on his guidance.
I remember a time not long after I was saved, that I went in to the bank where I always did my banking.
Some of the tellers had been talking about people that got rude or even mad at them because they felt like it was taking to long to get their transactions completed.
One of the ladies look at me and said,
“Gene, you never seem to get upset at anything, what is so different about you”
And right then and there as clear as a church bell ringing in my ears, the Holy Spirit said,
“OK Gene, it is time for you to witness, it is time for you to tell these people why you are different, it is time for you to let them know of the love of Jesus Christ”
And I opened my mouth and I said,
“Well, it doesn’t do any good to complain or get mad”
Folks, I blew it.
I failed.
There are thousands of days in my lifetime that I do not remember one thing that went on,
But this day,
This day probably seven years ago now,
This day, I am absolutely sure I will never forget.
Because I know for a fact that I failed to do what God was leading me to do.
Now,
Why did I not do what I know he wanted?
Why did I not obey?
He did not ask me to give them all of my money,
He did not ask me to pull a Bible out and preach to them,
He just asked me to speak to them of the Love of Jesus Christ that was in me.
And I failed,
Why?
Because I did not want to be embarrassed.
I was afraid of the reaction that I might get.
I was afraid that these people who I dealt with every week would look at me like I was stupid or something.
And for goodness sakes, I did not want to do anything stupid.
You know,
I bet if you think real hard, or even not so hard, most all of you will find that you have been in a similar situation at one time or another.
But so often we do not do what God wants because,
Well, it just does not make since to us,
Or, we don’t want to seem stupid.
Well, you know what?
I have decided that part of the reason that Christians are not as effective as we should be, is the simple fact that we are not willing to do something for God that makes no logical sense to us.
I again remind you, that I always want to back up what I have to say, with scripture.
Turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 3.
I am going to read a lot of scripture here this evening, but I want you to fully understand what is going on here.
READ 2 KINGS 3:1-10
I am going to stop right there for just a moment and explain to you what had happened here.
Joram had just become king of Israel, and the king of Moab rebelled against him.
So Joram contacted Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he also contacted the king of Edom, and they all formed together to battle the king of Moab.
These three kings combined their armies together and started off on a journey.
Now, they traveled seven days into their journey, and they ran out of water.
They had no water for their horses or their men.
And they pretty much felt like God had handed them over to the king of Moab.
Now, lets continue on in verse 11
Read Verse 11-18
Ok now, I have to stop right here for just a moment.
Did you just see what the prophet told them that GOD wanted them to do?
I mean, here are all of these men, they have traveled hard for seven days, they have been hot and tired, they are out of water, and I don’t know how long they had been out of water but it was a desperate situation because one of the kings felt like God had decided to hand them over to the king of Moab.
They were already worn out and weary, and God said that he wanted them to work all night if need be,
they had come into this valley and they had no water and verse 16 the prophet replied to them,
“This is what the Lord says, make this valley full of ditches.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds a little strange to me.
It doesn’t make any sense, And I bet that it did not make sense to a lot of these men either.
“Now, wait a minute, we just want our containers refilled with water, we don’t want to dig ditches.”
“We just want it to rain, we don’t want to have to dig ditches,”
“It doesn’t make since, it sounds ridiculous”
I want you to notice something here.
As we study this passage of scripture, We can see that
I. God’s plan for us requires our response.
These men may have just wanted to have water all of the sudden,
These men may have just wanted a rain cloud to form and bring rain,
But God’s plan for them and for us requires a response.
They had to get busy and dig ditches in the valley.
They had to participate and they had to have the faith that God would provide, or they would have never dug the ditches.
We need to do what God tells us to do,
We need to get busy,
Now I am not saying we need to just be busy doing work,
It must be the Work that God wants us to do, and we can all allow our selves to be led by the Holy Spirit and then we can get busy.
God’s plan for us requires our response.
Secondly I want you to notice that God’s plan for us
II. Tests our trust in him.
Read Verse 20
Do you see that?
When these men did what God had told them to do,…when they did something that may have sounded foolish,…. they were obedient.
When they did this, God supplied them with more water than they needed.
God filled these ditches with water.
He did this with his supernatural power.
Now, if these men had decided that this sounded to rash, if these men had decided that they did not need to spend there time digging these ditches, do you think that God would have provided them with water?
No.
Because he told them that if they would dig the ditches, he would fill them with water.
And that is exactly what he did.
I understand folks; it is hard for us to put that kind of trust in God.
Oh, we may believe that he will supply for us, but it is in the way he supplies that we wonder about.
If he told us to dig a ditch today, would we do it?
Now, it is not just us .
I am sure that people have always wondered about doing something that they thought was pointless.
I remember Joshua being told by God in Joshua 6:18, he was told to get his army of people to march around a city once a day for six days and then seven times around the city on the seventh day.
Now, that sounds like it would be a little strange doesn’t it?
I mean, that just does not make since to us now does it?
And I am sure that there were many people that were thinking that it did not make since at the time that they did this, but they were still obedient, they still did what they were told to do.
And God, by his supernatural power, God caused the walls of Jericho to collapse.
God told Moses to stretch his staff out before him over the waters of the red Sea, and God parted the sea.
God told Moses to strike a rock, and it would bring forth water.
Time after time in the Bible, God told people to do something that kind of sounded like it would be irrational as far as we can understand,
And he performed mighty miracles because the people were willing to do what they were told.
The Supernatural power of God,
We don’t understand it,
It goes against everything we can understand,
It goes against the laws of nature,
That is why, we can know that it is of God.
God’s plan, tests our trust in him.
Now, the next point I want to make is,
That, III. God’s power will exceed our expectations.
Read Verses 21-24
What did the kings want God to give them?
Water.
All they were wanting at this point in time, was water.
Well, God gave them the water they needed, and then he did so much more.
He used the water to confuse the Moabites.
You see, the Moabites knew that there was no water down in that valley, and when they woke up that morning, they looked out, and the Bible says that the sun shone red on the water and it looked like blood.
The Moabites thought that there had been a blood bath, they thought that the three kings had fought against each other and destroyed each other, and they ran in to get all the spoils and plunder.
But they had another thing coming.
You see, God had confused them.
God had made the sun to reflect off of the water just right and the Moabites thought that it was the blood of the opposing army.
God had handed the battle over to the three kings,
God had allowed the Moabites to be defeated with very little effort.
The hardest thing that this army had to do, was to dig the ditches.
And God took care of the rest.
What did they want?
Water
What did they get?
Water, and victory.
God’s power will exceed our expectations.
I wish I were at the point where I would realize that all the time.
You know, we pray for the healing of people all of the time.
But do we expect them to be healed?
God’s power will exceed our expectations.
I truly believe that sometimes we don’t see prayers answered because even when we pray, we don’t truly believe.
We don’t truly have that faith.
God’s plan for us, requires our response,
We need to get busy and do what God says, even if it does sound silly to us.
God’s plan tests our trust in him,
We need to rely on God’s supernatural power, we cannot do it. Only God can
God’s power, will exceed our expectations.
He wants to give us even more than we are asking for.
Today I want to ask you my friends,
Are you willing to do something for God even if it makes absolutely no sense at all to us?
That is what the people of the Bible did, time and time again.
Abraham went to sacrifice his son Isaac knowing that he was the promise from God.
Abraham left his home and headed out, not knowing where he was going.
We have already mentioned Joshua and the walls of Jericho.
We have already mentioned the things that Moses had done.
All of these things that these people had to do, that made no sense to them.
I really feel like we don’t see God at work more in our lives, because we are not willing to do that which makes no sense to us.
We are not willing to go and dig a ditch when we are dying of thirst.
I implore you today, to be willing to do what God tells you, especially if it makes no sense.
The Holy Spirit guides us every day, but we refuse to obey because we don’t understand.
Friends, we don’t have to understand,… we just have to obey…..
Let us be completely willing today,
Let us be ready ....
To dig that ditch.
Hey, if you see me in the near future, out here digging a ditch, don’t think twice about it.
If we have anyone here today that has never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
Then you have your own ditch to dig today.
You know, sometimes it doesn’t make since to us,
The fact that God has freely given us the gift of eternal life in heaven, and all we can do to obtain it, is to accept it.
If you have never accepted Christ into your heart, now is the time.
You could come this morning, as we sing a hymn of invitation.
