Let Him Lead

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How the world are you? You doing Alright today? Well, I trust so. This is your good friend Dr. Cook, and I’m back once again to discuss with you some things in the Word of God, try to put a handle on them, is what we do. Put a handle on, so that you can get hold of them for yourself, and in so doing, enrich your life and the lives of others around you. One of my constant prayers is that I, myself, might be kept fresh in God’s Word, and second, that what I have to say may not only help those who listen, but help them help others. That’s the way God works, you know.“ God comforteth us”, we read in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, verse three. “God comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them also, which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God”. God does something for you, beloved, so you can to do something for somebody else. That’s my goal in these broadcasts. First of all, in my own soul have the blessing of God every day; second, to pass along to you in the Word, those things will help you help others. Paul said to Timothy, “The things which thou hast heard of me, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also”, so was Paul to Timothy to faithful men to many others. God’s blessed multiplication scheme of promoting the Gospel throughout the world. Be a blessing to somebody today, will you? Look around for someone with whom you can share some of God’s precious blessings, so that you will not only of taken in something helpful to yourself, but also you will have been able to help and encourage somebody else along the way. Be an encourager for someone else.

Well, we’re looking at Psalm 23, “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures”, tender grass, not that tough, old stubble that we end up chewing when we choose our own diet, but tender grass and, “He leadeth me beside the still waters”, the waters of quietness. How to be quiet in a hurly-burly, hustling world, that’s the secret of every Christian, indwelt by the blessed Spirit of God. His mind stayed on God’s mind and heart full of the Word of God, His love fixed on the Son of God, and His prayers focused on God’s holy Presence and Will in his life. Quiet peace. Then we talked about restoring, restoring my soul, “He restoreth my soul”, when you get to the cave in place, when you get the place where you just haven’t got any more left.

Joe Stump was in the hospital one day, years ago. I guess he’s now with the Lord, I haven’t heard from him in a good many years. He used to work with us in Youth for Christ, and I went to see him in the hospital, and I said, “Well, brother, how are you?, he said, “Brother Bob, my get up and go has got up and went”. You feel that way sometimes, don’t you? (laughs) Oh, yes. I do too. What do you do? Turn to your blessed Lord and let Him refresh you. “They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength”. God is the God of refreshment. He’s the one that puts springs of water in the desert, according to Isaiah, He’s the one the does a new thing, “Behold, I will do a new thing, shall it not now spring forth, shall you not know it”. God is a God a refreshment, and of innovation, and of new points of view, and new outlook, and of new methods. God is a God who is perennially, constantly, eternally, refreshed from within Himself. When you wait on Him, you share all of that in your own experience.

Now, we come in verse three, to the second half of that verse, he says, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His namesake. Couple of concepts there that we want to mention. First of all it says, “He leadeth me”. Now, somebody can’t lead you unless you let him go ahead. Can’t lead you unless you let Him go ahead. “When He putteth forth His own sheep”, Jesus said in John chapter 10, “He goeth before”. Lead, as many as are led by the Spirit, they are the sons of God. How often we’ve sung that song, “He leadeth me, oh blessed thought, oh word with heavenly comfort fraught, where I am, whatever I be, still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me”. Oh, I wonder, let me just ask you the question: How long has it been, since you said, “Lord, I want you to go ahead of me and lead the way”? Oftentimes, we’re so busy doing it our own way’ that we forget to ask Him to go ahead.
Red Harper, in the early days of the Billy Graham crusades, was brought to Christ, a cowboy/actor/singer kind of a person, a delightful person, and thoroughly saved, wonderfully born again. But he had his lessons to learn as he began to grow as a Christian, just as we all do. I remember he was giving his testimony one time up in Toronto, just a short while after he had been brought to Christ. He said, “You know I’m having to learn my lessons”, he said, “I used to rush on into things, but now”, he said, “I’m learning to let the Lord lead me”, why he said, “I don’t even go through a revolving door without saying, you first Lord”. “He leadeth me”. How long has it been since you asked God for advice on anything nonreligious? Anything having to do for instance, with dollars; anything having to do with your children-training them, disciplining them or whatever; anything having to do with your domestic situation-husband/wife; anything having to do with your business- contracts, capital interest, payables, receivables, labor relations, material handling, shipping, collections. How long has it been since you asked God for advice on business matters? Some of you are salesman. How long has it been since you asked God to guide you to the right client?

I’ve often told you about my good friend out and in the West Coast, San Diego. Was a nice, saw him last, he was an insurance salesman doing very well, driving a brown Cadillac and Hickey Freeman suit and Florsheim shoes, and tie, the whole bit. He was feeling no pain, I said, “You must be feeling no pain”, I said, “You must be doing pretty well”. “Well,” he said. He paused, I said, “Tell me, tell me how are things? How do you do it? “Well”, he said, “I have an office in the basement of my home”, and he said, “I every morning I get down there and I spread all my prospect cards around in a semicircle, and I kneel in the middle of that semi-circle, and I pray, ” Dear Jesus, where You want me to go today, and then I go there, and He’s helped me”. Beautiful, but real and practical. If you’re a salesman, how long’s it been since you’ve asked God to guide you? Pastor, you have to make some calls, don’t you? You know, the way to be a success in the pastorate is to make three calls a day. You can’t just sit around and look holy and hope your people will come to you, you have to go out and see them. Three calls a day three, times a day, go tell somebody about Jesus. That’s in addition to your hospital calls, and your death calls, and all that, and if you do that it adds up to about 1,000 calls a year. Your church will grow and so will you, but have you ever asked God to guide you, as to whom you should see next, layout your pastor calls? Oh, I’ve done that, I’ll tell you. God can save you many of frustrating experience, either people are not home or elses when you get there they’re watching TV and a clammy hand reaches out and pulls you into the darkness and you have sit still ‘til the commercial comes on. Oh, yes. God can guide you, pastor, in matters having to do, for instance, with your calling. He certainly can guide you in matters having to do with the choice of your sermon material. You have to prepare it in advance, you can’t just to preach what one of my predecessors in one church did. They called it his “aisle” sermon- see, he would walk up to the platform and when he began to preach he would say, “As I was walking up the aisle this morning I thought”, and then he’d go on and preach and it sounded like it! Can’t do that if you’re going to last. So, you have to prepare weeks, and sometimes, months ahead.

My good friend Les Flynn, writes a whole book, and then he preaches it chapter by chapter, so it’s all in print and then he preaches it. He has to pray over it and get it hot, so it isn’t just warmed over, but that’s the way that is. You prepare it months in advance, in that case. How then can you possibly know what Joe Dokes needs on a given Sunday morning? You can’t, but the Holy Spirit of God can. See, let Him lead. Let God lead, let Him lead! He has to go ahead, “He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness”. Oh, I want to learn that lesson. I’m no longer a teenager, as you know. But I have to remind myself and after relearn these blessed lessons of walking with the Lord. Instead of dashing into situations, let the Lord Jesus lead. Whisper a prayer before you answer the phone, whisper a prayer before you enter into conversation, whisper a prayer before you start a meeting, whisper a prayer before you read and sign a contract, whisper a prayer before you hire or transfer or certainly before you fire. Oh, let Jesus lead, and He will. “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee”, God says, “and show the great and mighty things which thou knowest not”. He’ll teach you something in the process of leading you.

I used to ride with the police in Briarcliff Manor when we lived there. We’ve been gone now over a year, and I miss that. My buddies at the police department, I was badge 106, of the Special Police core, and that grew very fond of Art Johnson and all the rest. I used to ride with them on a night now and then, start about 7 o’clock and end about midnight. I remember I was riding with one of the young fellas and I said him, “Bill, teach me something tonight, teach me all you can teach me about your job”. He said, “Alright Reverend, I will”. So, he very carefully taught me some of things that he, himself had learned to look for in making his rounds. Are all the doors locked, he says, “You’ve got to eyeball them locks there, Reverend. You’ve got to eyeball them locks and see if their locked, and you know, anything unusual. Always look for anything unusual, because there might be a reason for it”. So, he taught me all that he could think of, and came midnight, it was time for him to finish up his shift, and I was going on home, and so, I thanked him very much, he looked at me and said, “Well”, he said, “You learned a lot tonight, didn’t you Reverend?” Yes I did. You can learn. He says, “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not”. God wants to teach you something beloved, it’s not just to get you out of a jam. It’s not just to answer your cry for help. Those things are important and He does answer. It’s not merely to supply what you consider to be your needs. The Bible says, “My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus”, that’s important too. But what really matters is that you learn in the experience, how God works. “Show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not”. You can look up and say, “Thank you Lord, for teaching me something in all of this”. You see the point?

“He leads me”, now it says, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His namesake. We won’t get into this today, but we’ll take it up the next time we get together. What are the paths of righteousness, and why is it for His namesake? These are the things that in that we want to get into the next time. Just before we leave though, remind yourself that wherever God leads it is a righteous path. God will never lead you to do anything that is not consistent with His Word or with Himself. All of Gods leadings are right ways. That is one good way to test which direction you’re going.
Dear Father today, grant us the good sense to let Thee lead in the paths of righteousness, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!