The Everyday Commission

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Yes that little greeting establishes the fact that this is indeed your friend, Dr. Cook, and I’m so glad to be back with you for a few moments of sharing from the Word of God.

My own heart has been warmed recently as I read and prayed and thought about things eternal in reading the book of Colossians. Do you mind if I share some of those things with you for the next little while? Book of Colossians. Paul signs his name first. It’s always nice to have a letter with the name signed to it. Anonymous letters have a bite to them that sometimes goes deeper than the writer intended. So he signs his name first, Paul apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timotheus our brother. Apostle of course comes from the Greek apostello, which means to send forth, in the sense of course there are no apostles in the New Testament, Christ chosen since, such as Peter and John and Paul, the God chosen apostle to the Gentiles, but in a larger sense you and I know that we are indeed sent by God. We are God’s sent ones in this world. Jesus said, “I send you, as my father hath sent me, even so send I you. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. We are God’s sent people.

This of course is in direct contradiction to the general attitude that God’s people seem to have. Most of us seem to do best when we have a little comfortable religious enclave within which we can function. We call it the church. That’s the local designation of a place where believers gather, and very often, I was 18 years full-time in the pastorate and so often I would hear people pray, ‘Lord, send in the sinners that they may hear the gospel and be converted’. That’s a good prayer but not particularly, not particularly scriptural. You see, the command was, “Go ye into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in”, that was in Christ’s parable about the great dinner to which the invited didn’t come, and I just now quoted the great commission, “Go ye into all the world preach the gospel to every creature. Make disciples of all nations”, and so on. The magic, I was going to say, but the miracle, is a better word, of the Christian faith is that it is a going faith. It sends people, “They there were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose over the stoning of Stephen went everywhere gossiping the gospel”. That word there is in your Greek New Testament, means gossiping or talking excitedly about it as though it were news.

The miracle of the Christian witness is that it is a spillover, it’s a kind of a sharing thing, it’s something that is involuntary. Peter said, “We cannot but speak the things which are seen and heard”, we can’t help it said he. You tell us not to but we can’t help it. Now there you have it the difference. One side says, “Lord we’re sitting here. You send people in and we’ll talk to them”. The scriptural attitude is, “Lord we’re going, guide us. Guide us”. Get going for God today beloved, would you? Take a step of faith. Move toward somebody to help supply the need and lift the burden and share your faith in Christ. That doesn’t mean you’re going to be an eager proselyter, running roughshod over people’s sensibilities and making a nuisance of yourself. That isn’t what we’re talking about. We’re talking about that genuine enthusiasm about the Lord Jesus that shares Him as you go about your tasks of the day. You don’t sit around and ask God to do it, you get on out and get with people and share your Lord with them. There’s the difference right?

Now, somebody’s saying, “Oh Brother Cook, I could never do that. I’m such a private person. I can’t talk about those things”. Well now, come on. You may be a private person but you do talk about some things, don’t you? You ladies can talk about hats and dresses and apple pie and diets and grandchildren, can’t you? You talk about them and some of those things are quite personal. Well, it simply is a matter of what you’re enthusiastic about. What is on your mind? What are you familiar with? Many people are unfamiliar with the truth of the gospel. To them it is a wonderful truth but it is somewhat remote from their everyday lives. And so, the way to spillover the things of God is to get full of them yourself. Spend some time with your blessed Lord until your eyes are wet with tears and your heart is melted with God’s love and you know that you love God with all your heart, and you know that He has touched you by his Holy Spirit, then I can guarantee you that the next human contact you make is going to feel the effect of that blessed experience with your Lord. Have something to share and share it. All that is wrapped up in the word apostle, apostello, sent forth. Somebody sent by God, “As my father hath sent me, even so send I you”,

He said. Now he says, “I’m apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”. This is a familiar concept to those of you who have been with me on the radio for some time, because every now and again I speak about the fact that your situation, as you experience it right now, is not a happenstance. “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord and He delighted in His way”, the psalmist said. “As thou go step-by-step I will open up the way before thee”, is the Scripture, and so where you are and what you are and the job in which you are and the circumstances that surround you, are not something that just happened. It’s not a matter good or bad look beloved, it’s by the will of God, and for those of you who are in painful situations, some of you are anchored by arthritis and every joint in your body hurts sometimes, especially when the weather is changing, and some of you are shut away in retirement situations, where nobody seems to care whether you live or die except those who minister to you daily for body needs and physical comforts, but your loved one seem to have forgotten you and they never come by. The kids used to ask your advice years ago now, they don’t even come and tell you what’s going on, and should you say, “I wish you could come and see me Jimmy or Mary”, or whatever, “I wish you could drop by and see me”, they say, “Oh yes Mom we’d like to but we’re so busy”. You know, those things have a way of coming home to roost, don’t they? Yes they do.

You know, someone gave me the other day a poem. It’s a long one and I can’t read it all, but the thrust of it is that the Dad was always so busy. “My child arrived the other day. He came to the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay and he was talking before I knew it and as he grew he’d say, ‘I’m going to be like you Dad, you know I’m gonna be like you’, and the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you coming home Dad? I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then, Dad, you know will have up good time then”. The poem goes on, “My son turned 10 and he wanted to know if I’d teach him how to play ball and the answer was no, I can’t do it I’m busy. And he came home from college the other day, so much like a man I had to say, ‘I’m proud of you. Can you sit for a while?’, he shook his head and said with a smile and said, ‘I’d like, really like is to borrow the car keys. I’ll see you later’. I’ve long since retired. My son’s moved away. Called him up the other day said, ‘Love to see if you don’t mind’, said, “I’d love to Dad, if I could only find the time. My job’s a hassle and the kids have the flu, but it’s sure been nice talking to you Dad’. Nice talking to you, and as I hung up the phone it occurred to me, he’d grown up just like me. Yes, my boy was just like me”. Those things have a way of coming home to roost, but the point is some of us are sitting in situations where, well it’s not very pleasant. People seem to have forgotten and others of you I know are in the middle of a hassle, where you’re so busy you don’t know which foot to stand on and you get so tired you wonder if you can take one more breath even. Life is really a burden on you. So circumstances differ, don’t they? Well, of course they do, but stop just long enough with me here beloved, to realize that what you are and where you are and the circumstances in which you are, are part of the will of God for you dear one, and they constitute, listen now, they constitute not only the reality of everyday, but they constitute an opportunity for God Almighty to work through your life in His own special way.

Oh, the will of God is not something static to be endured. The will of God is dynamic to be enjoyed, and wherever you are and whatever you are today, in your job, in your home, in that special situation that you seems to relegates you to be on the shelf even, or in that busy, busy location where life is just falling in on you and you don’t know what to do next because you’re so busy. Whatever it may be beloved, and I’ve been through these experiences, it pays to live a while, you know how other people feel. Whatever your situation may be, just remember the will of God presents an opportunity for God to work through you. Oh, look up today and say, ‘Thank you Lord for what the situation is with me. Thank you for your will now. Work through my life today”. You know He will. The will of God.

Then he says and this is Colossians chapter 1 verse 2, he said, “I’m writing to the saints and faithful brethren”. “The saints and faithful brethren”, now this is two sides of the same group of individuals. First of all, the saints refers to what you are as God sees you. To what you are as God sees you, “Called to be saints”, you read in the Word of God. God has called you a saint. You don’t have to wait until you’ve been dead 400 years to be beatified by some ecclesiastical authority. Thank God you don’t have to wait that long. The moment you trust Christ as your Savior and make Him by faith the Lord of your life, that moment you become one of God’s saints. “Behold he cometh with tens of thousands of His saints and every eye shall see Him”, we read in God’s Word. Saints. A person who has been bought by the precious blood of Christ, ransomed, redeemed from the slave market of sin, adopted into the family of God, one of His chosen, and then He dares to call you His saint. That’s how God sees you. He looks at you through the Lord Jesus Christ, who intercedes for you, “He ever liveth to make intersession for them who come unto God by Him”, the Bible says, and so the Lord Jesus Christ is interceding for you, naming your name before the holy Father, pleading your cause before Him and you’re God’s saint as a result. That’s what you are. Now, you may not feel like one. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and don’t feel very saintly, isn’t that true? I know. You don’t always wake up singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” do you? Sometimes you sing the song, “how tedious and tasteless the hours”. Oh yea. Our circumstances and our feelings vary. Sometimes they vary with the weather, but beloved, God’s the same. He hasn’t changed His attitude toward you since you trusted Christ as your Savior and you’re His saint. Thank God for that. We’ll get on to this the next time we get together.

Father today, may we enjoy the fact that we’re in Thy will. May we fulfill the commission of those who have been sent with Thy gospel, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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