Rev. Rob Henderson
at Brockway Wesleyan Church
June, 1999
https://www.angelfire.com/mi2/robhenderson/
robnaomi@oceana.net
https://www.angelfire.com/mi2/robhenderson/
robnaomi@oceana.net
June, 1999
Back in 1986 Naomi and I decided we were moving back to Muskegon from Florida. We loaded most of our belongings into our Toyota Celica, strapped in our little bundle of Charity and headed north. Soemwhere in Indiana we started to have car problems. It wanted to hesitate and sputter. We didn’t have enoguh money to get a motel or stop to fix the problem so we would stop at intervals trying to figure out what the problem was. The night got late and I found myself driving across 94 attempting to stay awake. I stayed awake most of the time I guess and eventually we reached Grand Rapids. We got gas and for whatever reason the sputtering had stopped. I got on 196 and headed to Muskegon.
What should have been a half our drive turned into a three hour tour as we wound our way through Holland. Needless to say, I was not happy. Somewhere between GR and Holland I realized that I had gotten on the wrong exit. I was tired, Naomi and Charity were asleep and finally at 6 am we arrived at my in-laws: home never felt so good.
And there are so many times in our lives that we get sidetracked on our journey to heaven. So often we find ourselves in circumstances that we were not counting on, roads that we should not be on but yet here we are. There are times when God, in His great wisdom decides that you or I need to take a detour, go somewhere else for awhile before we get back on the main drive. There are those who have needed to take a time out from life and go somewhere and get the help they need.
My point this morning is this: There are various roads that lead us home. Oh, some may cause us to see life a little differently, and experience new challenges but eventually we will come home into the arms of the Father who has so lovingly guided and guarded us along the way.
There are three roads that lead us home that I want to talk to you about today. Three roads that we travel: sometimes together but most times by ourselves. Three roads that call on the Christian to stand up and walk by faith.
The first road is this: The Road of Salvation
This past week I had the opportunity to share Christ with a camper named David. He prayed to accept Jesus Christ into his life. Wow! What an awesome experience. I also had the opportunity to talk with a couple of our teens about their Christian faith. Wow! But let me say this: the other roads of your life will never lead you home to heaven unless this road is taken. You cannot get to heaven based on your works and efforts. You cannot get to heaven unless you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life. You must be a follower of Jesus Christ or the others roads will just bring you frustration heartache.
As a body of Christians we will walk the same road of salvation. One spirit, one Savior, one body. We are His and His alone.
Remember that moment when Jesus Christ came into your life? Remember that seed that was planted? Maybe you were in Vacation Bible School or perhaps Sunday School or at a church service like this. Remember what happened? Jesus came into your life. A seed was planted.
Since then some of you have blossomed and produced fruit that you don’t even realize is there. Some of you took off with both feet running onto the road of salvation and have continued to grow ever since.
Others of you have stumbled along the way. Got hung up here or there, became sidetracked, made a wrong choice, but like a person running a race you’ve gotten back up every time.
And still, I believe that there are others of you who sit here, letting that seed that God planted become stunted and dried out. Rejecting the narrow road for the broad road that ultimately brings destruction.
And that saddens my heart.
God has called all men to salvation: Whosoever believes shall not perish.
This salvation road calls for us to not only accept Jesus Christ but to also become a follower of Jesus Christ. We are to be imitators of Christ. We are to be Christlike. We are to be holy. Whether you call it Christlikeness or holiness God has desired to have a people that is separated from the world. To be in the world yet not of the world.
As we go down this road of salvation we are going to see other Christians who are sputtering along, others broke down, and still others careening off into the ditch. As Christians we have a responsibility to try and pick up our brother when he stumbles and love our sister when she hurts.
That is why we have gathered here today: not only to praise the name of Christ and worship God, but to encourage one another.
The road of salvation is a priority road. If you are not on this road all other roads won’t matter.
The second road is this: The Road of Life’s Experiences
Charles Spurgeon the great prince of preachers in Great Britain during the 1800’s sat frustrated one day trying to put together a sermon for the following Sunday. He finally got up and went for a walk to a nearby park that was surrounded by a cemetary. As he sat on the park bench in the middle he noticed the people who would eventually find there way to the center where he was at. He observed the different paths that they walked: some came down a paved road right to the middle, still others walked a winding trail that seemed to longer to travel. Still others came down a stony, gravelly path that was harder to walk on. He left with his message for his people: The Gathering at the Center.
We all come from different backgrounds and life experiences. We all have seen life in a somewhat different light than the one next to us.
There some who come from solid Christian backgrounds. You had a mom and dad who loved Jesus, maybe grandparents and great-grandparents who all loved God and served Him diligently. You have a fairly functional background without all the problems that others have. The road of life has been paved for you and you have had a pretty easy route to take (if you have chosen to follow it). You come to the center of God’s love because of someone else’s vision and efforts. Some of us find ourselves walking over the the solid path laid by someone else’s hard work.
There are some who come to the center by way of the winding trail. There have been hurts and heartaches that have been unexplainable. Your heart has been wrenched by the pains of various sufferings that cannot seemed to be understood. But through all of the suffering, through all of the pain, through all of the heartache you come to the center.
And there are still others who go through bumpy times in their lives. Times of frustration, times of question, times of defeat but yet you make it to the center.
And in the center here today we gather. Here today we gather together, coming down different roads of experiences but here we are: God’s people together as a body of believers.
The road of experiences should cause all of us to stop and reevaluate how we see one another and how we see other Christians. Someone may respond a certain way to a certain circumstance because of their life experience.
For example, one day Naomi’s cousin was visiting and they rented a movie called Radio Flyer. It was about the experiences of two young brothers who lived in an abusive home. I sat in the kitchen studying but I could hear the movie. Finally, I could not take it anymore and asked them to turn it off. The depiciton of abuse was too much for me to handle. Why? My life experience. I had been on that road and didn’t want to be remined.
The road of life experiences should be opportunites to understand others and appreciate how they can enjoy certain pleasures in life. Some like, Bach, rock, rap, contemporary, country, easy listening, oldies, old oldies, opera, and so on. These should not be differences in the body but considered diversity in the body.
The third road is this: The Road of God’s Call.
I believe that all Christians are ministers and I also believe that all Christians are called of God to do certain works within His kingdom. He has gifted us with all sorts of talents and abilities. None of us can excuse ourselves from ministry. We each have a responsibility to be obedient to whatever it is that God calls us to do.
Some he calls to be teachers in Sunday School, others youth sponsors, others are gifted musically, others hospitality, and the list goes on. What is important isn’t what you are called to do, but it’s your obedience to the call.
God has called my family and I into ministry. We are really not a whole lot different from other pastoral families. We have served and have went through the accountability and challenges. We have experienced ministry in training here with Pastor Cooper and Lois. it has been a great ride.
And now it is time to take the next step that the Lord has called us to as a part of our journey. It’s now time to close another chapter of our Christian walk.
Like the ending of a good book it’s hard to believe that we have arrived to the closing pages.
For four years our life’s road has intersected yours. For four years we have worked together, laughed together, rejoiced together, prayed together, learned together, cried together, hurt together, and worshiped together. You have overlooked the stumblings of a boy preacher because you knew that God had a bigger and better plan.
And we are about to embark on that excursion.
I want God’s will for my life no matter what. There was a time in my life when the cost was too high and the price too much.
I’m not sure what the price will be as we move on. I’m not sure what cost the Lord will ask of us but one thing I am sure of is His hand in my hand. David Meece I believe put it best in one of his songs a few years back:
There’s a road up there, Where the eagle flies
There’s a path beyond the highest hill
Oh no I don’t care how far heaven lies
I’ve staked my life on this road I’ve chose
Only God really knows
God only knows what the future will hold. God only knows what lies ahead. God knows, and God cares.
And my hand is in His.
What does the future hold for Brockway? What can you look forward to? What great thing is it that God is desiring for this church?
I believe that you are at the beginning of greater things here. I believe that God wants to use Brockway as a light not only to this community but also to the world. I believe that God wants to continue to raise up pastors and missionaries from the pews of this church. Not simply young men and women but I am confident that there may even be some mature Christians here that God wants to raise up as missionaries and pastors somewhere else.
I believe that through the works of the Sunday School and Clubhouse and Youth programs that God wants to call young men and young women to become people of God and I believe that they will respond. I beleive that a whole new generation of Christians will come out of this church that will light the world with the truth of Jesus Christ.
I believe that this church will see revival as it has never seen before. Old men will dream dreams and the young men will see visions. People wil come to Brockway knowing that this beacon in a corn field will point them to the cross and to new life.
What God can do when we become vulnerable, when we become broken, and when we become faithful can be frightening to think about. But God wants to.
What road are you traveling? What will be said about your Christian faith in ten or twenty years. What will your life sentence be.
Robert Frost wrote a peom called “The Road Not Taken:”
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhpas the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay,
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference.
When I look back on my life I see the road that I chose to follow. No question marks. No regrets. This road has made all the difference.
May God bless this ministry and may one day we see one another again. And as Grandma Smith would tell this college student: “If I don’t see you again I’ll be waiting just inside the eastern gate.”
