The Lord Will Guide You Always Series

Sermon

Lanier Christian Church

January 15, 2017 – Series: Revive! Sermon #1

The Lord Will Guide You Always!

Isaiah 58:11

The Lord will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

Have you ever been lost? I have. I once got lost in Grady Hospital. I got on the wrong elevator that went to the lab floor then ended up on the morgue floor and finally found my way to the loading dock door and outside to freedom. To this day, I don’t know where I got turned around but I was happy to be outside where I knew my surroundings.

On another occasion, I was responsible for giving poor directions and getting a car-load of teenagers lost. It happened when I was sixteen and I thought at that age that I knew it all.

The church I grew up in, Hardwick Christian, was invited to an area Missionary Rally at Antioch Christian Church in Oconee, GA. A good crowd from the church was going so several cars left the church parking lot and headed down the road. A group of teens, including me, decided to ride together with the older brother of another teen. We were waiting for someone so we left a few minutes after everyone else. First question asked by the driver as we left the parking lot: “Anyone know how to get there?” I spoke up and said, “I do. I’ve been there before.” So I became the navigator. This is before cell phones and GPS devices. Also, on this lonely country road, there were few stores open on a Sunday; places where you might normally stop and ask directions. So, as we headed down State Highway 22 we came to a fork in the road. Go left or go right. I confidently said, “Go left.” That was wrong. So, rather than go another 15 miles and arrive at our destination, we went through Deepstep, Sandersville, Tennille and Wrightsville before finding someone in Wrightsville who pointed us in the right direction. It became a thirty-mile detour and we finally did arrive at the church – at the very conclusion of the service, only to be confronted by some worried parents!

Have you ever been lost? Have you ever come to a fork in the road and chosen the wrong direction?

If you haven’t done so on the highway, perhaps in your life. So let me ask you again – this time considering your life.

Have you every come to a fork in the road and chosen the wrong direction?

One direction is somewhat well traveled and seems wide and offers plenty of travel room. This way is especially appealing to those who have planned and determined their course, but ironically it also appeals to those who don’t care a whole lot about in which direction they travel. It is a way that looks right, feels right and appears easy breezy.

So, you choose this broad way. And at some point, as you travel down this broad and easy way, you realize you are off course. You experience feelings just like those of being lost:

helpless, uncomfortable, uneasy, frustrated, restricted, desperate and stuck.

And then it hits you. YOU have chosen. You have chosen poorly and selfishly. You confidently decided that you would do it “your” way.

The other direction, at this fork in the road of life is not necessarily an easy way. In fact, it doesn’t look well travelled and it is very narrow. You can’t see everything that is up ahead, but you know it to be the right way. You know it to be the right way because you have used your GPS – God’s Positioning System. You have yielded control to a professional and eternal navigator. God has become your guide. You chose Him as your navigator and He is leading you each step of the way, through the unseen valleys and the towering mountaintops. And he leads you and strengthens you in ways you never thought possible. And you find as you travel that you are at peace, you find joy in the journey and a purpose in your travels.

We have come to a fork in the road today. Either you want to be revived or you don’t. There is no third option. If you don’t want to be revived, then you will be very uncomfortable here week in and week out. It’s very much like pulling your car up to a gas station and refusing to put gas in the tank. Just sitting in the parking lot of a gas station will not provide fuel to fire up your engine and get you down the road. You have to open the gas cap and put the fuel in your tank!