You Have a Voice

When religious leaders asked John the Baptist who he was, he answered in a way I believe far too many Christians today would NOT answer. Why? They’ve convinced themselves of their inadequacy to say as John said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ John 1:23

Inadequacy? Says who?

Listen to what St. Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth: [It is not that we consider ourselves “adequate in ourselves . . . but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant . . ..” (2 Corinthians 3:5,6).

Christian, listen. According to the WHOLE testimony of Scripture AND the entire history of the Christian Church through the ages, we do not need to have expert knowledge of God’s word to do what He has called us to do. We do not have to have perfect lives to be useful for the Master. Adequate’ is good enough.”

And why is that? Because God is God, and He is able to take our ‘adequate’ to a supernatural level of fruitfulness for His kingdom. All He asks of us is that we be willing for Him to use us. To say to Him, “Here I am Lord. Send me.”

What a comforting and hopeful promise that is, isn’t it? Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done – our supernatural God is able to take our adequate to a supernatural level.

He is able to take YOUR voice, a whisper that it might be, and filter it through His megaphone. Don’t we have His promise through the prophet:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)

Don’t we have His promise through His apostle Peter: “[A]pplying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. . .

Now listen as he continues: For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

You. Have. A. Voice. It doesn’t matter – it SHOULDN’T matter – if we can see the results. We walk by faith and not by sight.

Yes, it is true that the works some do for Christ are more noticeable, more evident, more visible than the work of others. But what was the name of the person who offered his home to Jesus and His disciples for the Last Supper? (Matthew 26). Who was the young lad who gave his lunch to Jesus on the day when He fed the five thousand? Tell me the name of the impoverished widow who contributed two pennies to the Temple Treasury.

We don’t know their names because God didn’t want us to know their names. Otherwise, He would have told us.  Perhaps He didn’t tell us their names to demonstrate to us that God uses EVERYONE who WANTS to be used in His work; Everyone of every age and every station in life.

It is nothing less than a sulphuric lie of the Father of Lies that gets God’s unnamed and unknown children like you and me to think that since we are not like those spiritual powerhouses, why even try? We think we couldn’t be as they were if we lived a dozen lifetimes. And so, it is easy to give up in disillusionment – and therefore the devil silences our voice.

Did that unnamed widow know the Lord Jesus was watching her?  Did she know what she did would be written down and passed on through 2000 years of Church history, even to this very moment as you listen to this message?  Of course not. She didn’t know any of it. But her devotion to God has encouraged Christians for 2000 years.

And so, don’t YOU ever let the lie delude you into thinking that YOUR story is not being written down in God’s ledger to be reviewed by angels and archangels and by every sinner saved by grace who will live eternally with the story of what YOU did – even though you might have had no clue of what it was you did.

Gospel singer and song-writer Ray Boltz penned these lyrics some time ago. For the sake of time, I quote only a portion of the song, titled, Thank You (for Giving to the Lord).

As you read the lyrics, I urge you to think of your own work of faith and labor of love and your steadfastness of hope in your service for Christ over the years:

I dreamed I went to heaven, and you were there with me . . . We heard the angels singing, then someone called your name. You turned and saw this young man [who said] . . . You used to teach my Sunday School when I was only eight. And every week you would say a prayer before the class would start, and one day when you said that prayer, I asked Jesus in[to] my heart.

Then another man stood before you and said, remember the time a missionary came to your church and his pictures made you cry?

You didn't have much money, but you gave it anyway. Jesus took the gift you gave and that's why I'm here today.

One by one they came, far as the eyes could see. Each life touched by your generosity. Little things that you had done, sacrifices you made,
unnoticed on the earth, [but] in heaven now proclaimed. . . . . And [as] you stood before the Lord, He said, my child look around you, for great is your reward.

Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed. Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am so glad you gave.

How many will say to you and to me on that day words like: I’m so glad you gave. I’m so glad you smiled. I’m so glad you hugged me . . . that you said a kind word. I’m so glad you told me you’ll pray for me . . .That you paid my restaurant bill, even though I was a stranger. I’m so glad you brought me food when I was sick . . . that you visited me after my husband died . . that you supported my child in the missionary school . . . that you wrote letters to me when I was disabled and living in a nursing home. I’m so glad you bought my child a gift when I couldn’t afford to.

Listen! We must stop giving place to the lie that God cannot use you, despite your age, or mobility, or health, or strength, or circumstances.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” When you in obedience to Christ reach out to others, YOU have beautiful feet.

Read again from Isaiah (61), which the Lord Jesus quoted to his audience – and which the Holy Spirit applies to you and to me in 2021. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives . . .to set free those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18)

You routinely meet people who are brokenhearted, and wounded; People who are prisoners of the things they’ve done and said in the past that continue to haunt them years – decades later. People who think they are friendless – and who in fact may BE without a friend.

You don’t need to be a Billy Graham or a St. Mother Theresa to bind up their broken hearts or point them to the one who can release them from their imprisonment.

Please remember this passage about the Judgment found in Matthew 25:

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

This is NOT about your abilities. Or mine. It’s about our willingness to be used, to live a life of kindness and compassion and holiness. Even if you can’t leave your home because of the COVID-19 virus, the supernatural God can still use you. St. Paul wrote nearly one third(!) of his epistles while he was imprisoned. What is impossible for God to do with those who want to be useful to His kingdom?

A while back I found this poem titled, At the Winter Feeder. It was written by John Leax, and was part of a Chuck Swindoll daily devotional. As I recite the poem, please think about how its message can apply to you and your voice for Christ:

His feather flame doused dull/by icy cold/the cardinal hunched/into the rough, green feeder/but ate no seed.

Through binoculars I saw/festered and useless/his beak, broken at the root.

Then two: one blazing, one gray/rode the swirling weather/into my vision and lighted at his side.

Unhurried, as if possessing/the patience of God/they cracked sunflowers and fed him/beak to wounded beak/choice meats.

Each morning and afternoon/the winter long/that odd triumvirate, that trinity of need/returned and ate/their sacrament /of broken seed.

 Listen, God is the God of the supernatural. And he is perfectly able in his divine sovereignty and providence to take your whisper and put it through his megaphone.

God’s word will not return to it to him void, but it will accomplish what He set it out to accomplish.

If you want to serve Christ with whatever gifts He has given you, then please be convinced, you have a beautiful and melodious voice for Christ. Please, no longer let the enemy of our souls silence it.