1 Samuel 16: 7
Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
You Are CALLED
You Are CALLED
You Are CALLED
Today we start our summer focus on King David and today we Commission our Mission Team for Service to the people of Louisiana.
I cannot tell you how excited I am about this summer, next week, VBS…All the things that we have going on here, all that God has CALLED us to.
In our scripture passage today I want us to focus on one verse in particular. There is a wealth of knowledge in this passage but today I believe we need to hear this verse.
In verse seven, Eliab is standing before Samuel and Samuel thinks to himself surely this is going to the one whom I anoint.
But God, aware of Samuel’s thoughts, advises Samuel:
Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
For me God is not making a statement against height or stature, rather God is making a statement about who does the calling and why. God calls people based on what God sees in the human heart.
In our society people call people based on what folks look like and the façade that a person can project. And although, we try to try to pick folks for the right reasons it is pretty obvious that folks of power tend to be those folks who have worldly stature.
Our God looks at the human heart. Not only does our God look at the human heart but our God sees the human heart. It seems to me that there is a difference between looking and seeing. In our daily conversations we use the words, or the ideas behind the words somewhat interchangeably but our passage points to a different idea, it is an idea that points to God’s ability to truly see our heart.
This is the fourth year that Union Grove sent a mission team to the Gulf Coast. And this is our largest group, the most we’ve taken before this year was 24 and today you are commissioning 31 mission team members. I don’t know about you but I believe that it is no accident that the 31 folks who will stand before you in a moment were chosen to go on the trip. Furthermore, I don’t think that it is an accident that many of us were chosen to remain and to pray for this mission team.
God sees the heart of God’s people and God knew who needed to be praying and who needed to be sweating. It is no wonder looking at our team that there are probably at least 10 to 20 times more people praying then there are going. God knows who will fervently pray for the team and maybe that is why some folks aren’t going this summer.
I am not suggesting that folks going on the trip are not folks who pray or that folks not going are not folks who can work, rather I am suggesting that God knows us so well and sees our hearts so clearly that God knows who needs to pray this year and who needs to go.
This may be overly simplistic but I look at our congregation (and let me be clear if you are hearing this word today you are part of our congregation and I expect that God has you here for a reason, God does see your heart after all) as broken into two groups for the next couple of weeks.
One group is the 31 folks going on the trip, called to mission in a location of natural disaster, called to rebuild, called to serve God with works of their hands.
The other group is everyone else who is staying in North Carolina, those folks who support us from all over the country, basically the folks not going with us on the trip, and that know the trip exists. These folks are called to pray. We ask that you pray for the individual members of the Mission Team. We ask that you pray for the folks who we will be working with in Louisiana. We ask that you pray for travel safety. We ask that you pray for the work that the mission team will be doing each day. We ask that you pray for safety on the jobsite. We ask that you pray that we may embody the Fruit of the Spirit. We ask that you pray for justice, mercy and humility. We ask that you pray for us continuously.
For our trip to be the trip that God has called us to it is imperative that we are under girded with prayer. Those folks going on the trip are being commissioned today, and everyone is being CALLED, and one might argue that the calling of those folks praying is just as critical as those of us going.
When I went in to talk with the t-shirt guy about our design for the summer t-shirt, he said, “I like the design and all, but I don’t really get it.”
I said well it’s a combination of a couple ideas but here is the basic premise. On our mission trip we will be using a lot of power tools, we work long days and we pride ourselves in being able to tackle hard jobs as far as the work goes.
But we realize that the most powerful tool that we have is the power that comes through Jesus’ forgiveness on the cross. We realize that the cross points to the resurrection and Jesus’ victory over sin and death and it is Jesus’ victory that gives us the ability to work so diligently and accomplish so much on our trips.
He said, “And what about the bottom line.” "You know how it is"
I said, well there is a gentlemen in our congregation who says this phrase often. Charles is always at church to open doors for those who want to come in, he rings the bell to tell when church is going to start in 10 minutes (for those of you who don’t know Charles rings the bell at 5 till ten). Charles keeps an eye on the grounds of Union Grove making sure things are in working order and safe for those coming into this community.
But I think that when we see or hear this phrase some 1062 miles from home, that’s how far Deridder, LA is from Hillsborough, we will remember that there is a group of people praying for us and we will be uplifted.
Part of God’s power is the community of God’s faithful servants.
On Thursday, I called down to Louisiana and talked with Candyce, who is the volunteer coordinator for UMCOR in Lake Charles. Immediately Candyce put me on the phone with one of the case workers, Sharon. She says, 'Luke we have the perfect house for your group in Deridder' and before she could continue I say 'pardon me but how far is Deridder from Gueydan' the city I thought we would be staying in. Sharon says, 'Candyce didn’t tell you that we moved your group to Deridder.'
'You see we don’t have many groups that will agree to do whatever we ask, but since your group will we need you to work on Mary and Venny Miller’s house. After Rita and Ike the Miller’s took in a woman and her two children and since then the woman has passed away. The Miller’s are still taking care of the children, one of whom is handicapped, the Miller’s really do need your help, boy would I love to close this case.'
Because God can see our hearts God is able to call us to specific tasks and God knew to call us to help the Millers. It is not that we could not have helped the folks of Gueydan rather God knows us and knows who God will call later to go to Gueydan. Because God sees our hearts God can call us to tasks that God has made us to perform.
These next couple of weeks are not going to be easy; I believe that we are all called to this mission. Those of you who are praying, believe me, those of us going rely on your support and prayers. And folks going on the trip, you know how it is, you have to pray too. You have to pray that God sees your heart so that you may do God’s work.
And pray for the Millers, pray that God’s love may be made known to them even through this difficult time in life.
You are CALLED
You are CALLED
You are CALLED
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