Gtcotr/ss010724
There are people who watch it happen.
There are people who make it happen.
There are people it happened to.
I was someone watching it happen because someone was making it happen and suddenly it happened to me.
I was 12 years old in the summer of 1967 and I went to Church. I was watching Church happen at the First Baptist Church in Simms, Texas, because someone was making it happen. I was doing nothing to make ithappen. In fact, if it had been up to me it would not have happened.
However, while I was watching Church happen because someone else had decided it was worth their efforts to make Church happen, suddenly it happened to me. I felt the hand of God on my life, became convinced I needed Him in my life, and as a result it changed my life for ever … it happened to me!
This was not the first time I had watched Church happen and not the first time some wonderful people had gotten up on a Sunday morning and left their homes early to make Church happen. But … it was the first time anything like that had happened to me.
I want to say a great big thank you and God bless you to all those nameless and often forgotten people who gave of their time, talents, and treasury to make Church happen for me. Looking back on the last 57 years I can tell you that without regard as to what it cost Mr. Lanoy Johnson, Mrs. Tidwell, or Pastor Tom Cowgill, it was well worth their investment.
So many times since that day, I have been the recipient of someone else’s hard labor. I am the fruit of seeds sown by others who answered the call, stood their watch, and invested their lives. I believe each and every one of us can say the same. Especially when it comes to being born-again.
Today we are going to take a look at the lives of some of the people in the Bible. God gave us a picture of people making things happen while people watched things happen and suddenly, even without their permission, it happened to them.
Acts 8 NKJV
4 ¶ Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.
5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.
6 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
7 For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.
8 And there was great joy in that city.
Philip was making it happen.
The multitudes were watching it happen.
Suddenly … it happened to the Samaritans who were watching.
There are people who make it happen, people who watch it happen, and people who it happens to. And by the way – these things work in the negative, just like they do in the positive.
Have you ever read the account of Lot who was the nephew of Abraham. He and his wife and 2 daughters lived in the city of Sodom, near the southern tip of the Dead Sea, in the Jordan River Valley. It was a very fertile plain in those days, about 2000 years before Christ.
It seems that the men of Sodom were not living lives pleasing to God but were passionately committed toperpetrating violent acts of sexual sin against other men. They justified their behavior by saying that no one else had the right to judge them. The “I should be able to do whatever I want to” doctrine of life.Basically, anything goes. You have your truth and I have mine. The heck with rules … there are no rules!
There was a group of people in Sodom who:
2 Peter 2
7 And (God) delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
Vexed = 1: exhausted; worn down 2: to struggle against the wind …
Lot saw and heard filthy conversation of sinful people all day long and watching what was happening … it happened to him. He became:
Genesis 19:8 “See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men …”
That’s your answer Lot? Talk about bad company corrupting good morals. (1 Corinthians 15:33) … “Crucify Him; Crucify Him; Crucify Him.”
There are people who make things happen.
There are people who watch things happen.
There are people who things happen to.
The last Bible account for today deals with the Apostle Paul. Paul was a man who made things happen. In his early days he was known as Saul of Tarsus and the things he made happen caused a lot of bad things to happen to a lot of good people. After he was born again, Paul worked just as hard for Jesus as he had previously worked against Him.
There is an account in the book of Acts detailing how Paul and his ministry disciple, Silas, were stripped, beaten with rods in public, then thrown into a dungeon and placed in stocks and chains.
But … that is not the end of the story. Paul decided he wanted to make something happen for himself and others, instead of just letting whatever the devil wanted to happen. Let’s read from the Acts account:
Acts 16
25 ¶ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
You can finish reading that account because it is not the last thing they made happen and not the last ones who watched it happen and not the last people who Church happened to that night.
The jailor and his whole household were saved … the prisoners were ministered to … a Church was birthed … and Paul and Silas were set free and continued their missionary journey to share the Gospel all throughout the country of Greece.
Today – someone is still making Church, family, missions efforts, and all the will of God happen. Are you that someone?
Today people are watching these things happen.
It is my hope that just like it happened to me and to so many others, that something wonderful, something miraculous, something spiritual will happen to you. If you are not born-again, if you have not personally invited Jesus into your heart to be your Lord and Savior, it can happen to you right now …
Pray with me … Become a part of making God things happen and remember … God has a plan for your life but so does the devil … learn to recognize the difference. Because What you feed will grow … and it happens suddenly!
