By TIMOTHY L. MELTON
Pastor of Cherokee Pentecostal Church
Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate
Reference: Hebrews 12:1-39, Hebrews 11:1-40
Moses was sent to a world leader. He was a stutterer, sent to do one thing, and that was to speak to Pharaoh of Egypt. One does not send a stutterer to a world leader to make a speech, but that is what God does.
A person looks at Isaac. Isaac was a deceiver. Isaac came along, and by the way, he named the entire nation of Israel after himself. Are we understanding this?
When I look at those in the Bible, what I find out is, God doesn’t call the smartest, the best-looking, the most powerful, or the greatest of the great. He called some of the most messed up bunch of people I’ve ever seen in my life. In fact, if I were God, I would have never chosen the people He chose.
Remember David? The one He called the man after His own heart? He was an adulterer and a murderer. God called him anyway.
If God can use an adulterer and murderer to do amazing things, look at your neighbor and say, “God can use you too.” That is why He said, “If you want to know if you can do it, look around at those who have.”
I’ve met a few. I looked at them and thought, “If you can do it, I can do it.” We were getting ready to run a race, a little race that a person must run so many miles and I thought, “Maybe I can do it.” There’s about a 400-pound man standing beside me, who already had so much sweat rolling off him, his shirt was wet. We hadn’t taken four steps yet. I thought “If he can, I can make it.”
How many realize that sometimes we just must look around. If God calls one, puts it in one’s heart, they can make it. We can do it, putting one foot in front of the other and keep going. God keeps me there. It’s very important one can get there. Why? Because the enemy has no new tricks. Let me be clear for you. The devil has no new tricks. Maybe, all are brand new to you, but I promise, it’s nothing new, according to Scripture. What the devil is bringing against one, somebody else has gone through it, can do it, but most likely, it’s Jesus Himself. If somebody else can do it, how many know they’re also able to do it?
What kind of tricks does he bring? Let’s look at some of them. This is very important to godly people. I’m talking to the Sunday night people. They are the ones who show up because they want something. Here is what He said we must do.
Number one, we just keep running. We must lay aside the things which may be weighing us down. Lay aside every weight. I know this may seem elementary but let me go ahead and help you. Getting down to pray. Pray for fifteen minutes. If feels like nothing’s happening. Don’t stop. Keep going. Because it might not feel like you’re getting anywhere, but you are getting somewhere. Have you ever had to run a mile? Then you will know if you ever have, that when one looks at the end, it looks so far away.
If one keeps on running then when they keep looking toward the end that looks so far away, and then, a person keeps running to the end of it. It may even look like an impossibility, but there’s only one way to get there, and that’s just to keep on running to the end of it. Keep running, jog a little, keep on because eventually one can get there.
The enemy will throw every weight on a person he can, to keep them from doing things, like reading their Bible. There may be seven other things that are important and need doing, so the person can’t help it. Or one’s praying, but the phone rings every time and now we have this to worry about bothering them. One needs to lay aside what is bothering them and declare, “For the Lord, I am laying aside those weights.” The Lord is first., before anything else. I’ve got a race to run because I want to get to the end.
