“Blind Intersections”
2 Sam. 2:1-4
These sermons served as the foundation for Max’s newest book, Facing Your Giants.
THEME: You have all you need to face the giant – size questions of your life.
Introduction: Max Lucado introduced the idea of direction for our lives by saying, “if geese had my sense of direction, they would spend winters in Alaska” (p. 90). He also wrote that: “I can get lost anywhere. Seriously. Anywhere. The simplest map confuses me; the clearest trail bewilders me. I couldn’t track an elephant through four feet of snow. I can misread instructions to the bathroom down the hall. Indeed, once I did and embarrassed several women in a fast-food restaurant in Fort Worth.
I once got lost in my hotel. I told the receptionist that my key wasn’t working, only to realize I’d been on the wrong floor trying to open the wrong door.
Several years ago I was convinced my car had been stolen from the airport parking garage. It hadn’t; I was in the wrong garage.
While in Seattle, I left my hotel room in plenty of time for my speaking engagement, but when I saw highway signs for the Canadian border, I knew I’d be late. I once went for a morning jog, returned to the hotel, and ate. I’d eaten two portions of the free breakfast before I remembered my hotel had no breakfast bar. I was in the wrong place” (p.90-91).
Perhaps you can relate to Columbus, who, as they say, didn’t know where he was going when he left, didn’t know where he was when he got there, and didn’t know where he had been when he had gotten back.
Can you relate? Of course you can. We’ve all scratched our heads a time of two, if not at highway intersections, at least at the cross roads of life. The best of navigators have wondered, do I take the job or leave it? Accept the marriage proposal or not? Leave home or remain home? Build or buy?
One of life’s giant-size questions is How can I know what God wants me to do? and David asks it. He’s just learned of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. Suddenly the throne is empty, and David’s options are open. So David inquired of the Lord about what to do (2 Sam. 2:1). David makes a habit of running his options past God. God answered and told David what to do.
Transition: Oh, that God would do the same for us. That we could ask and he would answer. That we could cry out and he would reply.
I. Consult Your Maker
The God who guided David guides you. You simply need to consult your Maker. God hasn’t changed. He still promises to guide us. “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
"This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isa. 30:21). "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). There are many promises concerning prayer of God’s Word. Consult your Maker. Discover his direction by marinating your mind in his writing.
Transition: Do you have a Bible?
II. Read Your Bible
Has any other book ever been described in this fashion? “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
“Living and powerful.” The words of the Bible have life! Nouns with pulse rates. Muscular adjectives. Verbs darting back and forth across the page. God works through these words. The Bible is to God what a surgical glove it to the surgeon. He reaches through them to touch deep within you.
Haven’t you felt his touch?
In a late, lonely hour, you read the words “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:15). The verse comforts like a hand on your shoulder. When anxiety termites away at your peace, someone shares this passage, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). Put the word to work. Let “the words of Christ…live in your hearts and make you wise” (Col. 3:16).
Don’t make a decision, whether large or small, without sitting before God with open Bible, open heart, open ears, imitating the prayer of Samuel: “Speak Lord for your servant heareth” (1 Sam. 3:10).
Transition: You have a Bible? Read it. You have a family of Faith? Consult it.
III. Family of Faith
Others have asked your question. You aren’t the first to face your problems. Others have stood where you stand and wondered what you wonder. Seek their advice. “…whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their faith” (Heb. 13:7).
Is your marriage tough? Find a strong one. Wrestling with business ethics? Seek sage advice from a Christian businessperson. Battling midlife decisions? Before you abandon your family and cash in you retirement, take time to get counsel. You have God’s family. He will speak to you through it. And will speak to you through your own conscience.
If you are part of the family of God, consult them.
Transition: You have a heart for God? Heed it.
IV. Heart For God
Christ nudges the Christ-possessed heart. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). What does your heart tell you to do? What choice spawns the greatest sense of peace?
Sometimes a choice just “feels” right. God creates the “want to” with in us. For example in the book of Jude in verse three, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). He intended to dedicate his epistle to the topic of salvation, but he felt uneasy with the choice.
Be careful with this. People have been known to justify stupidity based on a “feeling.” “I felt God leading me to cheat on my wife…disregard my bills…lie to my boss…flirt with my married neighbor.” Mark it down: God will not lead you to violate his Word. He will not contradict his teaching. Be careful with the phrase “God led me…” Don’t banter it about. Don’t disguise your sin as a leading of God. He will not lead you to lie, cheat, or hurt. He will faithfully lead you through the words of his Scripture and the advice of his faithful.
Conclusion: As F. B. Meyer wrote a century ago: “Each child of God has…a conscience void of offense, a heart cleansed in the blood of Christ, a spiritual nature which is pervaded and filled by the Holy Spirit of God…Are you in difficulty about your way? Go to God with your question; get direction from the light of his smile or the cloud of his refusal…get alone, where the lights and shadows of earth cannot interfere, where the disturbance of self-will does not intrude, where human opinions fail to reach-…wait there silent and expectant, though all around you insist on immediate decision or action – the will of God will be made clear; and you will have…a new conception of God, (and) a deeper insight into his nature (p.99).
You have a heart for God? Heed it
A family of faith? Consult it.
A Bible? Read it.
You have all you need to face the giant-sized questions of your life. Most of all you have a God who loves you too much to let you wander. Trust him…and avoid the potholes along the way.
