I'm Glad I Met That Man!
As I write this article, I’m on another plane. Today, I am going to Alabama to speak tonight and tomorrow for the Heritage Christian Workshop. It will be good to see family and some old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. We appreciate the great work that Heritage is doing training preachers. They have an outstanding staff. They are led by an excellent Board of Directors (including my brother, Dale, and one of our Lewisville elders, John Taylor) and an outstanding President, our good friend Dennis Jones. They have a great faculty who is well qualified to teach preachers.
I will return home late Friday night, attend the Arms of Hope Dinner Saturday night, teach the Sunday morning auditorium class on Worship, and continue our Sunday morning sermon series on the Temptations of Jesus.
Immediately following the morning worship I’ll get on another plane to Denver, present the final lesson for the Bear Valley Lectures, and come home Monday. We also love Bear Valley. The Lewisville church supports Will Hanstein who does an outstanding job directing the Graduate Program for BVBID. In recent years we have grown to love and appreciate Denny Petrillo who is the Director at Bear Valley. They also have an outstanding faculty who does a wonderful job teaching preachers.
Well none of that is what this article is about, just wanted to update you. Now, I’ll try to get back to the point of the article. I was recently spending some time with some friends of mine, and as usual one of the guys wanted to pull a stunt. We set up a scenario where one of us would be talking about something we really didn’t know anything about. The others would be listening intently as if this person were an “expert” on the subject. It was a public place with much traffic.
People began to gather to see what was going on. We baited the “expert” with a couple of questions, then others started asking questions. The answers given sounded good, but were no where close to correct. It was quite humorous.
After listening to the baloney for some time, and even asking a couple of questions, one man turned to his wife to get her to go. As they left I heard him say to her, “I am so glad we met this man!” After that we lost it!!
I wonder if people ever have that impression of us after being in our presence? You know, there are some people you can meet and you walk away thinking, “My life would have been perfectly fine, and maybe even better if I had never met this individual.”
Our Lord was one of those kind of individuals who every person was thankful when they met him. It was said of Him that, “He went about doing good.” (Acts 10:38). When the people He came in contact heard Him teach they, “were astonished at His teaching (Matthew 7:21; Mark 1:22).
What about it, preachers? When people meet us do they detect someone who is mad at the world and bitter toward others, or do they walk away saying, “I’m glad I met that man?” When they hear us preach do they get a sense that there is a lot of anger and that we think we know everything or do they say, “I’m glad I was able to hear that man proclaim the Word of God?”
What about it, elders? Do the people you shepherd look at you like you are a member of a corporate board and someone who is unapproachable, or do they say, “I’m glad I met that man and I’m thankful he is my shepherd?”
What about it, deacons? Do those church member who work along side of you get the impression that you are not happy performing your tasks or do they say, “I’m glad I met that man and I thank God that he is a servant in the church?
What about it, Bible class teachers? Do the students who sit in your class get the idea that you are not really interested in the class and that you haven’t prepared or do they leave your class and say, “I’m so glad I met that person and I’m so blessed to hear them teach?
What about it fellow Christians? Do people who work with us, live in our neighborhoods, and socialize with us see individuals who don’t represent Jesus well, or do they walk away from us and say, “I am so glad I met that Christian person?"
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE SHOW THEM THE LOVE OF GOD.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE SHOW THEM THE LIGHT OF CHRIST.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE LIGHTEN THE BURDENS OF THEIR LIVE.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE LIFT THEM UP TO GOD IN PRAYER.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE LET THEM SEE US SMILE.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE LEAVE THEM WITH THE MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL.
PEOPLE WILL BE GLAD THEY MET US WHEN WE LIVE OUR FAITH EVERY DAY.
Dear Father in Heaven, help us to live in such a way that when we meet people, they will say, “I am glad I met that individual.” Help us dear Lord to show the love of Jesus to everyone we meet. Help us to be a shining light in a world of darkness. In Jesus Blessed Name we pray, Amen.