C085 Ministers Conference Version
© Project Winsome International, 1999
Download this
teaching
THE MAN GOD WANTS
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Ezekiel 22:17, 30
For my text I turn to the haunting language of the ancient drama recorded in Ezekiel, chapter
22:17,30--"And the word of the Lord came unto me saying...(verse 30) I sought for a man among
them who should build up the wall and stand in the breech before Me for the land, that I should
not destroy it; but I found none."
On a much smaller scale, it was a time like our own.
A time of world change.
Of international upheaval.
Of political confusion.
Of moral cloudiness.
The little nation of Israel was faced with a bleak and barren future. Huge hunks of their
manpower had been taken captive and carried away to a foreign land. Their dream city lay in
ruins. Their sacred temple was destroyed.
As always, when the heel of oppression begins to grind hard, there were those who, for the sake
of personal expediency, submitted to the evil of compromise. And, even as one bad apple will
eventually spoil the lot, their evil influence--like a creeping malignancy--began to crawl down
into every area of Hebrew life.
Their easy compromise and thoughtless conformity to the ways of their captives punched
gigantic holes in the wall of resistance which God had built about them. As a nation, they lost
their sense of destiny. As individuals, they forsook the faith of their Father Abraham.
Finally, their only chance for survival lay in the hope that God could find a man--a man who was
big enough to stand in the breech--a man of such gigantic stature that he would know that, apart
from God, they could do nothing. But we read:
"I sought for a man...but found none."
The scene quickly changes. Centuries rapidly come and go. As our eyes gradually focus upon
the generation in which we live, we see that another day of crisis is upon us.
Gone are the simplicities of the past.
The shape of the future no one knows.
Only one thing is sure:
the present and the future are exceedingly demanding.
As a nation, we have not been carried away captive by some foreign power, but we are in danger
of being captured by the philosophy of personal security and peace of mind at any cost.
The tyranny of things threatens to grind us under its' heel. Through the gaping hole which
materialism has punched into the wall of our resistance the flood tide of a soft religion offering
comfort and success rolls in relentlessly.
Who will repair the wall against the oncoming tide? Who will stand in the breech for God? This
morning He is looking for a man.
A man who is big enough and broad enough and tall enough in conviction, courage and
commitment.
A man who is equal to His demands.
A man who will put the trumpet of the gospel to his lips and sound a battle cry to which all
people will rally.
What are the characteristics of "The Man God Wants"? Well, one thing is certain: He will be no
Superman. The world already has more of those than it can stand.
We have supermen who are capable of sending satellites into the atmosphere to encircle the earth.
But God wants a man--not a Superman-- a man who will fill the atmosphere with
the missiles of love and faith and truth.
We have supermen with such a grasp of the power of nature that they can destroy life on this
planet for the next million years. But God wants a man--not a Superman-- a man who will learn
to harness the powers of heaven so that people, created in the image of God who now bear the
smirch of sin upon their souls, will be recreated in the image of His Son.
We have supermen who can harness the suspicion and hatred of the world and make them
destroy. But God wants a man--not a Superman-- who will take understanding and good will
and use them as a catalyst to bind all people everywhere together.
And God is not looking for His man among the lofty, but among the rank and file. As someone
has said:
"The heroes have done about all for the world they can do and now nothing more will happen
until the common people rise up to do their common tasks."
There can only be one Billy Graham. Only one Norman Vincent Peale. But there can, and must
be, many dedicated parish preachers who, from their unknown pulpits, will proclaim a gospel for
the searching heart. A gospel for the guy or gal on the street. The difficulty is that the number of
such preachers is not large enough. Today, God is looking for a new recruit. He is searching for
someone to enlarge that number. Not someone at the Summit, but someone from an ordinary
place. And today, my friend, He is looking at you.
Well--what is he like--"This Man God Wants"? First of all, I think he will possess
The Stability of a Great Conviction.
"The Man God Wants" must know what he believes, who he is, why he is here, where he's going
and how he plans to get there.
Perhaps some of you have heard of the epitaph which was carved on a headstone in a certain cemetery:
"Remember friend as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I;
As I am now thus you must be,
So be prepared to follow me."
Well, some character with a wry sense of humor came along and, in a scrawling hand, wrote below:
"To follow you I'm not content
'Till I find out which way you went."
I think the whole world is like that. People want a leader who knows where he stands and why.
Only then will they have confidence enough to follow. And, "The Man God Wants" must have a
sense of destiny built upon the foundation of a Body of great convictions.
If you are going to be of any use to God and His world, you must get straight on who He is.
You must see yourself in relationship to Him as His child and obedient servant.
You must build up a core of firm convictions about such critical matters as life and death, heaven
and hell, sin and salvation. For it's in the realm of moral and spiritual issues that the battle in
which we are engaged will be fought.
"The Man God Wants" can bear no resemblance whatsoever to the French Revolutionist who said:
"The mob is in the street. I must find out which way they are going, for I am their leader."
There is no room in God's army for such blind leaders of the blind.
You must remember that through Christ you have already ceased to be a creature of time and
have become a creature of eternity. And, as a stranger here on earth, your job is not to conform
to this world, but to change it.
That won't be easy in this highly divergent, "in your face," confrontational time in which we live.
Therefore: "The Man God Wants" must also possess
The Strength of a Great Courage.
One of the tragic derivatives of the modern philosophy of "integration" and "adjustment"--and I
say this as a student of psychology who is well aware of the necessity of resolving the unwhole
tensions that would destroy us so we can, indeed, become integrated and whole--one of the sad
side effects of this new "pop psychology" is that it fosters a Chameleon Complex.
We begin to fall for everything and stand for nothing. We develop a wishbone instead of a
backbone. We give feeble assent to the pressures of society instead of courageously standing up
to them. We are so afraid of being called "square" or "unsophisticated" we have learned to
believe in everything--a little bit!
A chaplain was counseling with a young man who found his life in ruins. The GI was defeated.
"But Sir," said the soldier, "you don't seem to know about and understand the outside pressure. It
is terrific!" "Outside pressure?" said the chaplain. "Of course I understand the outside pressure.
What I want to know is where are your inside braces?"
Well, "The Man God Wants"--the man through whom and with whom He is going to work to
build a better world--will possess the inside braces of a great courage.
It will be courage born of a great conviction of that the gospels he preaches and the Christ she
serves is relevant even though the norm of public morality falls low and millions of people do
things, and go along with things, and become a part of things simply because everybody else is
doing it. In the face of all that, "The Man God Wants" will echo the words of Fulton J. Sheen
who said: "Right is right when nobody's right and wrong is wrong when everybody's wrong!"
What was it that gave those early disciples such iron clad courage in the face of staggering
opposition?
What was it that fired their hearts and nerved their arms to action?
It was the conviction that once and for all the Kingdom of God had broken in on history. That
once and for all the Word had become flesh. That once and for all the powers of darkness had
been defeated.
As James Stewart said in one shining sentence:
"They wasted no time exhorting their hearers with moral homilies--or cajoling with novel
ideologies--or trying to build a church on the shifting foundations of a man-centered constitution.
'On Christ, the solid rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.'
That was their message!"
They confronted their listeners with something which had been done--and done by God forever!
One mighty act. Decisive. Final. Complete. They knew that while God's Great Deed stood
towering over the wrecks of time, it was not imprisoned in the past. It was contemporaneous.
Christ was alive!
"Time was shot through with eternity and gleams of glory were continually piercing the darkness
in which they lived."
God was at work in the world! Their world! The world of everyday, human need.
Therefore, even though these men knew they were nothing more than earthen vessels--haunted by
a gnawing sense of their own inadequacy and insufficiency to the task to which they had been
called--they were nevertheless sure that somehow, by the grace of God, they were
"more than conquerors through Christ."
That He who lived and died had risen again and was with them always, even as He had promised.
That's what transformed those disciples from a motley group of quaking cowards into a marching
legion of courageous conquerors. And that is the dynamic, infectious faith which must grip the
soul of "The Man God Wants."
Filling him with the strength of a great courage.
Setting him aflame with that fire which does not consume.
Sending him forth to combat the powers of darkness
knowing that he will win because, through the power of the living Christ, he cannot fail. And
then, "The Man God Wants" will possess
The Serenity of a Great Calling.
It is one of the tragedies of our day that over 75 out of every 100 men are not in work for which
they are naturally fitted. As a result, they are frustrated and unhappy. The lower 20% are
continually changing jobs. Moving here and there. The upper 10% seek to compensate for their
frustration with a driving urge to be successful and, in their frantic chase for the god of gold, they
become blind to everyone and everything except themselves.
Now let it be understood that I understand the need for Christian lay people. But while we need
teachers,
scientists,
farmers,
plumbers,
businessmen and
businesswomen,
who will do whatever they do to the glory of God, the supreme need of the hour is for more and
better preachers. And frankly, there isn't any more fascinating occupation on earth.
Are you interested in the greatest challenge this side of heaven or hell? Try preaching.
Do you wish to make a worthwhile contribution to the thought of your day? Try preaching.
Are you interested in a life of contrast? Are you fascinated by people? Are you intrigued by the
potentiality in all people? Try preaching.
Are you concerned for the lost, the broken-hearted, the downtrodden? Try preaching.
Oh, you'll have sleepless nights,
terrible temptation,
depressing failures,
disappointments undreamed of,
abuses heaped high
and moments so low you will feel forsaken by all, including God.
But, if you try preaching, you will also have
joys undreamed of,
A peace that the world cannot give,
praise undeserved
and the satisfaction
of being in the will of God--knowing with a sense of serenity--that yours is a great calling. But
Before You Try Preaching, Try Praying.
Try yielding. God has too many problem preachers already. Make certain of your calling.
Make sure there is nothing else in all this world you can do and be truly happy.
For then, and only then--when you are convinced you are "The Man God Wants"--try preaching
and preach as though life itself depends upon every word you speak. Because it does! Life
abundant and eternal, for those to whom you are privileged to praech!
During the summer of 1951, we had the privilege of holding evangelistic services throughout
Europe under the sponsorship of the Baptist World Alliance.
During our stay in Germany, I was scheduled to preach and Lucille to sing in each of the four
revival tents the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society had given to the German Baptists for
revival work.
One of our visits was to the little town of Buekeborg, which is located near the Western border.
One of the interesting things about the religious life of Germany is that the farther West you go,
the more Catholic becomes the country.
As we drove along the narrow, winding German roads, we saw more and more evidences of this.
About every ½ mile we would notice a little Catholic shrine along the side of the road featuring a
crucifix or statue of the Madonna standing with folded arms.
German peasants--some of them with only the barest minimum of clothing, some with shoes,
some without--made their way along the roadside to do obeisance before the shrines.
The more of this I saw, the greater became the burden of my heart. I wanted to stop the car and say:
"Look! Salvation is not found in a wooden Christ nailed on a wooden cross. You don't have to
go on counting your beads hoping that somehow God will hear. For by 'grace are you saved
through faith.'"
The closer we got to Buekeborg, the more my heart was aflame with the message of God's love
and grace.
When we arrived we drove around until we found the tent. Already the crowds had begun to
gather tho' it was an hour or so before meeting time. We were introduced to the pastor and,
through my wife who speaks a little colloquial German, just enough to ask directions and maybe
order something to eat, I said, "May I meet the interpreter? I want to go over the message with him."
The man looked at me with that blank stare of someone who does not understand. So I repeated
my request to meet the interpreter so we could go over the message of the evening. He said, "The
interpreter? We thought you spoke Deutsche. We have made no arrangements. There is no interpreter."
By then the tent was full. When the service began a few moments later, I looked across a sea of
faces numbering more than a thousand. The sides of the tent had been drawn up so that hundreds
more, who were standing on the outside, could see. With great sadness in my heart, I had to
haltingly dismiss the service and send them home because there was no interpreter.
That night I went to the little German Inn where we were staying and I couldn't sleep. As I
tossed back and forth in the darkness, all I could see was that sea of over 1,000 faces--the hungry
look in their eyes reflecting the emptiness of their souls--knowing that I had a message which
would answer their need, but the message could not be heard because there was no interpreter.
And then I thought of how often God must look out from His great heaven and see the groping
masses of humanity
struggling blindly in the dark,
seeking some light to guide them,
hungry for some word of hope,
craving for a song of deliverance from their sins.
Knowing that in Christ he had the answer.
Knowing that His Son had died that all people might live.
Knowing that in Jesus, He has spoken a word of reconciliation and yet,
how often, that word cannot be heard because he has no interpreter.
My friends, the one great task to which all of us have been called is to be an interpreters for
Christ. Be you commoner or king,
rich or poor,
high or low,
there is a task which only you can do. A job which is distinctly your own. If you do not do it,
my friend, it will not get done. The calling to which you have been called as "The Man God
Wants" is this:
Telling the world that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."
"I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breech before Me
for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none."
Today God is seeking someone. Someone who is big enough and broad enough and tall enough
in conviction, courage and calling. Someone, not from the summit, but from the ordinary places.
Someone He can use to stand in the breech for Him.
Today He's looking at you! How about it? Will you be "The Man God Wants"? Will you be the
woman God wants" You need only say
"Here am I Lord, send me..."
and the angels in heaven will join Him in saying
"I sought for a man...and found one!"