Your Steps Are Ordered

Your Steps Are Ordered

(Strangers Rest Baptist Church - 2/18/2024)

Good morning Strangers Rest. I give honor to God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Pastor Emeritus Banks and to each of you attending this service live or via live stream, I thank you for this opportunity to come and encourage you as you begin this new journey that is going to require you to prayerfully listen to and follow the leading of the Spirit of God in the days ahead. Psalms 119:133 says, “Order my steps in Thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Strangers Rest, I am here this morning to encourage you and tell you that “Your Steps Are Ordered.”

You are starting a process to identify your next Pastor – the person God has chosen to lead this congregation. Your ultimate goal in this whole process is to successfully identify the person that God has already chosen – and yes, God has already selected the person that He wants to lead you. You see, there are many men and women standing in pulpits across this country who put themselves in those positions. Likewise, there are men and women that have been anointed by God to be over congregations who are not because the congregations did not agree with God’s choice. Do you see where I am going with this? Just because someone has been called to preach the Word of God does not mean that they have been called and anointed to pastor and/or lead a local Church. Just because someone can preach does not mean they can pastor and yet we often place these individuals in that role because we like their charisma and how they preach the Word of God. My older brother, who lives in Ohio, is an ordained minister. He will tell you that God has not called him to pastor a church. He has served in his current church for over 20 years, and he preaches in his pastor’s absence. But he knows that the role of a pastor is not God’s plan for him. But I want you know this morning; you must be called to be a pastor, otherwise you will do a lot of damage to God’s people. For example, as I was preparing this message, I read an article on CNN about a pastor whose wife came home and complained that a co-worker at the McDonalds, where she worked was mistreating her. The pastor went to that McDonalds and got into a physical altercation with the individual his wife had complained about. He was arrested for trying to dunk the man’s head in one of the deep fryers. Can you imagine watching the news and seeing your pastor on TV being arrested for doing something like this? I am not standing in judgment of this pastor, but the optics were not a good testimony for a Christian, let alone a pastor!

The first sermon you heard this year was delivered by your guest speaker Rev. Luke Bobo. Do you remember what he shared? He said that we have two ways to live. We can live like a wise person or we can live like a fool. He read from Psalms 1 and shared the importance of the Word of God and how it should be our guide for how we walk here on earth. Amen!!! Then he asked, “Who do you consult when you have a problem?” The answer: the Word of God. Again, Amen!!! Then he did something that I really appreciated because it will make a big difference in how you go through this transition. He double dogged dared you to consume the Word of God on a daily basis for the rest of the year! He said you should read it, study it and live it! Amen, Amen, Amen. He preached a message that laid the foundation for what you are going to hear this morning – actually this would have been the next message you would have heard had the services not been canceled due to the weather. Rev. Bobo told you to allow the Word of God to guide you – in other words, to order your steps – and for you to choose to walk in those assigned steps. As you go through this transition, you have two ways to do it: you can do it as a wise person by praying and utilizing God’s Word to guide you or you can do it as a foolish person would – no praying and no utilizing God’s Word to guide you. So with that said, let’s go back to Psalms 119:133. Again it says, “Order my steps in Thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

How many of you have heard the song “Order My Steps”? Some of the words say, “Order my steps in Your word, dear Lord. Lead me, guide me every day. Send Your anointing Father I pray, order my steps in Your word. Please order my steps in Your word.” When we sing and/or meditate on that song it’s personal – we’re asking the Lord to do something for us that He has already done. We’re asking Him to order our steps according to His Word. Well, since His Word is already established it means that we must be willing to go to His Word to understand the steps that He has laid out for us to take. David wrote in Psalms 37:23, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way.” If you are willing to walk with the Lord He has ordered your steps. So what does this actually mean?