Wherever He Leads, I'll Go

Introduction

Take your Bibles, please, and turn, this morning, to the Book of Acts, the eighth chapter. We’re making our way through this book under the title, “That Old-Time Religion.” Now, in order to face the future, we need to understand the past. If we want to understand what the Church ought to do in the 20th century, then let’s find out what it was in the first century.

When I was a young man in high school, I felt God moving in my heart. I thought, perhaps, that the Lord wanted me to preach the gospel. I cannot tell you how that germ thought got, first of all, into my heart and into my mind. As a matter of fact, if there would be anything that I did not consider myself to be, it would be a preacher or any kind of a public speaker. As a matter of fact, the thought terrified me of standing up in front of people and speaking. Well, yet, the Lord put that germ thought into my heart and into my mind. And, at first, it was there as a question. I thought, “Lord, do you want me to preach?” And then, after a few months, it was more than a question—it was a thought: “Lord, I think that you want me to preach.” And then, after it became more of a thought, it became a conviction, and I began to pray: “Lord, if you don’t want me to preach, then you’d better let me know.” And then, it finally became a decision.

I was at Ridgecrest, North Carolina; we were having our Baptist assembly there, and I was there in the summertime, and they were singing a song during the invitation: “Wherever He leads, I’ll go.” And, God touched my heart, and said, “Adrian, I want you to preach My gospel; it’s settled.” And, I stepped out to that invitation, and said, openly and publicly, what I knew was true in my heart and in my life that God had laid His hand upon me, and He wanted me to preach His gospel. And, as a high school boy, I said to my Lord—I said it then, and I meant it; I meant it then, and I mean it now—“Wherever He leads, I will go.”

Now, I want to speak to you on the same subject today, and that’s the title of our message today: “Wherever He Leads.” But, I don’t want just Adrian to have said it. I want everybody here to say it and mean it: “Wherever He leads, I’ll go.” Now, He may not lead you across the ocean. He may not lead you to the pulpit. But, He will lead you. And, He has a plan for you.

Now, I could ask, today, how many missionaries are here, and I don’t want you to lift hands, because it might embarrass you, after I tell you what I’m going to say next. Because, I want to say that every one of us who is saved is a missionary. To say missionary and to say Christian is to say the same thing. Now, a missionary is somebody who has been saved from sin. Now, some of us are sent across the ocean, and some of us are sent next door, but if we are saved, then we are sent, and we need to say, “Wherever He leads, I’ll go.” Now, I want to give you this morning, as we study God’s Word, something to encourage your heart—something to say and to mean it—not to be afraid to say it. And, by the way, if there was ever a time when you ought to say it, ladies and gentlemen, it is now.

I spoke recently with the sheriff of our county. He told me of the drug epidemic here in Shelby County. I did some more research. I found out that, this year, 80 billion dollars will be spent on illegal drugs. Do you know how much a billion dollars is? Can you imagine what will happen with 80 billion dollars in illegal drugs? I found out, also, that one out of every four teenage girls will become pregnant, if statistics hold. That’s a frightening thing—a statistic that we’ve heard, and perhaps we have become almost calloused to it. One-and-a-half million little babies will be slaughtered, murdered in their mother’s womb. And, how it ought to break our hearts! Everett Koop, who is the Surgeon General of the United States, said, “Unless something is done by the turn of the century, 100 million people will die of AIDS”—100 million by the turn of the century, which is not far away.

These are desperate days. These are desperate days. The problem is that the times are desperate, but God’s saints are not. We sit back, and we feel like, if we come to church on Sunday morning, then we’ve done God a favor: “O God, what a good boy am I! I went to church on Sunday morning. I even put something in the offering plate.” Now, I want, by the time we finish this message, for you to have said it and meant it: “Wherever He leads, I’ll go. Whatever He commands me, I will say.” Now, I want you to begin to read here with me, please, in Acts chapter 8 and verse