The Effective Ambassador
Paul E. Little
Scripture quotations, unless
otherwise noted, are from the Revised Standard
Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by
the Division of Christian
Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the U.S.A., and are
used by permission.
[Suppose] you had been on the
coast, either one—West or East—or
anywhere for
that matter, swimming at the seashore and suddenly
found yourself knocked down
by the waves, and suddenly you’re in trouble.
Do you remember how that
happens—a big wave comes and knocks you down,
and you go in over your head?
You begin to flail and thrash around and gasp for
breath and you’re afraid and
everything is out of perspective. There isn’t a
great deal that matters to you at
that particular point—in terms of world
politics or the economy or anything
else—except getting your feet and getting your
breath back again.
Sometimes it happens very
suddenly, unexpectedly. Other times it’s sort
of a
gradual thing, and you’re overtaken without
your realizing what’s happened. You
know, life is like that. Sometimes we’re going
along and suddenly we’re knocked
down in the surf of life by some circumstance that is
totally unexpected. And we
begin spiritually to flail around: everything is out
of focus, we’re gasping for breath,
we don’t understand, we’re panicked. A
great deal doesn’t matter to us that
ordinarily does.
Sometimes we get knocked down
like that gradually, sometimes very suddenly. It
may be some tragedy. It may be a physical illness
that hits us overnight (and none
of us knows whenever that may happen). It may be that
we flunk an exam; it may
be that there’s a relationship that breaks up;
it may be that we have family
troubles (difficulty with children or in our
marriage); it may be that our finances are
in very difficult shape and what we anticipated we
could do, we couldn’t do. It could
be any one of a hundred things that we flail around.
It may be that there are some
of us here this morning and some of us who are
listening who are in that situation in life at this
very moment. If you’re not in that
situation at the moment, be thankful for it, but the
time will sooner or later come
when the surf of life will knock you down, and the
important thing is to try to find
out how we can regain our footing and regain our
spiritual breath. The only sure
footing we have in the Word of God is related to God
himself: the awareness of
and the confidence of the providential sovereignty of
God. It’s the theme that runs
through the whole of Scripture—through the Old
Testament and into the New
Testament—the fact that God our Creator has a
loving purpose of good for each
of us, and that nothing happens in your life and mine
by accident. I would suggest
this morning—and I want to elaborate on this
theme from the Word of God—that
that’s the only way to get our feet back on
terra firma; that’s the only way to
catch our spiritual breath with the swirling surf all
around us in life. But as we lay
hold of that, we regain confidence and comfort and
peace and joy. There is no
other way.
This is a
theme that runs, as I say, from Genesis to
Revelation. Joseph knew it.
You remember the story of Joseph—literally sold
down the river by his brothers. He
was in all kinds of difficulty for standing for
righteousness’ sake and so on. He had
every reason for bitterness (legitimately!) and for
all kinds of hostility, but in that
classic statement in Genesis 50:20 when his brothers
finally are discovering who
he is and they fear for their lives, he says to them
not to worry. He says, “You
meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for me for
good.” And all during those
years that was the anchor that held Joseph. That was
the sure ground that he had
in the swirling surf of life.
We find it
reflected in Daniel and his three friends Shadrach,
Meshach and
Abednego. In Daniel 3:17-18, you remember, it’s
put to them (right to the wall,
literally) by Nebuchadnezzar as to whether
they’re going to bow down and
worship, and the alternative is the fiery furnace.
And they say to him, “Look, we
don’t know what God’s plan is, but we
believe in his providential sovereignty.” They
didn’t put it in those words, but that’s
obviously what was behind what they said.
And they said, “If God delivers us, fine. If he
doesn’t, that’s fine. But in any case,
we’re not bowing down, so go ahead and do what
you please.” That’s what kept
them in that situation.
And then there was
David—David, who was God’s anointed but
who was having a
terrible time because Saul was out to kill him. And
David had a lot of friends who
wanted to help God out. Numbers of them said,
“We’ll take care of him for you.
You don’t even have to get your hands dirty.
The blood won’t be on your hands.”
Joab at one point said, “Look, just one throw
of the spear and that’s it, and we’ll
take care of the whole thing.” And he no doubt
gave very plausible reasons to
David (since David had already been anointed) why
this might be appropriate. But
David, knowing God’s providence and his care
and his love, says in 1 Samuel
26:11, “God forbid that I should touch the
Lord’s anointed.” And David didn’t
try to
do God’s work for him, even though there was a
lot about it that must have been
swirling surf.
This
morning I’d like to think with you about how
this principle operated i |