You Can Be an Agent for Good

We represent communities and streets and neighborhoods throughout this entire region. I am sure that right now there are people here not only from Boston and the surrounding communities, but also people who live in Lawrence, in Brockton, Rhode Island, as far away as Worcester, Springfield, Salem, even New Hampshire; and right now we have people from Europe visiting us here who, incidentally, also greatly need the Lord in this time, especially amid great financial crisis and profound perplexity. Many people are suffering, and we also sympathize with our brothers and sisters in Spain, who are going through a terrible economic crisis.

But we represent the fingers, the Voice of God, whom God can take to all those places where we live, and God can make you an instrument of His Word. Some heartbroken person, some traumatized person, someone who is rebellious because they feel as though God does not exist, that He has washed His hands of everything, and they wonder why He allows so much evil in the world—we can be a voice that informs the community about how to view these traumatizing moments.

You can be a hand that rests upon a feverish head and says, “May the peace of the Lord be upon your life.” You can offer counsel to a young mother who is afraid of the future in which her children will grow up. You can be a word of blessing to the doctor whose home you work in, perhaps cleaning the house, cooking, or taking care of the children; and perhaps that person has just been operating on a battered body and also thinks that everything is science and biology, and that no embodied, personal good can exist in such a neurotic and senseless world.

You can humbly be that person, like in so many passages of Scripture where there was a servant girl or some humble person who said to someone, “Hey, there is a solution to your problem,” as happened with Naaman, the leprous general, when a Hebrew slave girl told him, “You know what? You can be healed, and in Israel there is a prophet who can heal you.” We can be that person.

We can be a teacher who embodies the goodness of Christ for a little child who might one day become this terrorist, inoculating him with a word of love and placing Christ in his heart, so that when the devil comes looking for him, he will see the seal of the Cross on his forehead and have to pass him by. That is what we can be, my brother.

Can you imagine what would happen if this Congregation were activated as fiercely militant people wherever we go, with a single identity: servants of God before being workers, professionals, homemakers, or students; first and foremost, servants and instruments of God?

Yes, “first responders,” that is, people who are there to respond. When the Lord says, “Whom shall I send?” there is so-and-so in Dorchester, there is my daughter in Roxbury, there is my servant in Mattapan or Cambridge, or at Mass General Hospital or Harvard; or there is a professor seeking God who does not know how to escape the intellectual thicket in which he finds himself, and a simple, humble Word from a child of God can break the spell and open his mind to the Word of God. That is who we are.

I was thinking specifically—I am not even going to read it—but do you remember the story in the Book of Esther, when Haman, a demonic being filled with hatred for the people of God, seemed to have gotten his way by obtaining the King’s permission to exterminate the Hebrew people wherever they might be found? It seemed irrevocable, and in one sense the permission the King had given for the destruction of the entire nation was indeed irrevocable. And the Jewish people knew that they were under an irrevocable death edict, and there was no legal solution because the King could not retract his decree; there was no one to intercede for them.

But there was a woman, a young woman whose only gift was the physical beauty she had received from God, as well as a pure heart that feared the Lord; and God had strategically placed her in the King’s palace like a benevolent time bomb, so that when the word of destruction arose, there would be a word of preservation. And Esther was not a theologian, she was not a preacher, she was not an intellectual; she was simply a simple woman like Mary, because God likes to choose simple people. She had a heart that was right toward God and was in precisely the right place at precisely the right time.

And when her uncle Mordecai learned what was happening, he sent a message to Esther, but Esther was looking only at her limitations. She said, “Yes, okay, they are going to kill my people, but first: the King has already given the order, and it cannot be reversed. Second: I cannot appear before the King unless the King first invites me, and if I enter his chamber without permission, even I am under an edict of death.” And Mordecai told her, “Esther, if you do not speak, relief and the solution will come through someone else, another person, and you will miss your opportunity.”

Why, brothers and sisters? This is what I am saying: ultimately, God is always in control. God will not allow death to triumph over life or darkness to triumph over light. There may be a moment when, as one contemplates that moment frozen in time, it seems as though the devil has gotten his way. That people, condemned to extermination, would have perished at that moment, just as we now look upon this city and say, “Wow, terrorism, death, violence—we are hostages of the devil in this world.”

But you know what? Behind the scenes, the Lord is preparing a way out, and God is using the mechanisms of history—sometimes very murky and inexplicable—to weave a narrative that ultimately ends in blessing. Because look at us, more than three thousand years later, celebrating that event, from which God has brought tremendous good as a story of hope and triumph.

And Mordecai told her, “If you do not speak, someone else will speak, and you will miss your opportunity. And who knows whether God has placed you there for such a time as this?” Brother, I am certain that God has placed you—has placed us—in this city for such a time as this. We are in one of the most strategic cities in the world. President Obama expressed this in very eloquent words: Boston is a relatively small city, but it has an exceptional concentration, unique in the world, of great universities, the best hospitals in the world, some of the finest centers for art and music, high technology, a rich history, and all the physical beauty of New England, with an international community that comes here seeking spiritual nourishment—like that young woman who was murdered by these terrorists, a young Chinese woman who, incidentally, shows how important it is for the Church of Christ to be a point of light in the world.

That young Chinese woman who was murdered was reached by two Christian ministries. That does not get much coverage in the news, but InterVarsity is a Christian organization that does a great deal of work with university students, and it is known that InterVarsity ministered to this young woman and that she attended their meetings—a Chinese woman. Not only that, but she also attended Park Street Church, an American church in the city of Boston. And Park Street Church has a beautiful English-as-a-second-language ministry, which they also use to evangelize many people.

And God knows what other stories are out there about hope amid the darkness and about the Church of Christ being used in those extraordinary ways to bless the nations. Church of Christ: You are Esther; I am Esther. Tell yourself, “I am Esther”—in the city, in the nation, in our community. God has given you a talent, a gift. Young man, young woman, you may think that you have nothing to offer, but wow, God has something for you. God can use you, homemaker, uneducated person, undocumented immigrant. God can use you.

You are a bullet in God’s benevolent and merciful revolver. The Lord does not use it to kill; God uses it to destroy the darkness, the powers. And you are a projectile of good. When you strike a life in need, the Grace of God within you will explode in that heart and fill it with life. See yourself that way. Do not waste opportunities. Keep your eyes open to see how you can be a blessing; let your mouth always be ready to speak a word of hope and comfort to someone. Let your mouth always be willing.

There are young people here who can reach people I cannot reach. You young people, perhaps you come from a destructive background; perhaps you left your gun at home to come to León de Judá this morning. And you know what? God can then use you to reach a gang member; He can use you to reach someone who might one day become a terrorist. I cannot do it, but you can; you are Esther, fashioned by God.

The devil is shaping you to destroy, but God can use that same grim configuration to make you a blessing within the sphere where you have moved. Perhaps you go to the nightclubs on Saturday night and come here on Sunday. Well, one day the Lord will take you out of the nightclubs, but while you are at the nightclub, tell someone to come here too, and be used by God in some way.

You can be an agent of good while God completely rebuilds you. Share the Gospel with someone—whatever you can do. If you have a little piece of bread, give that little piece of bread, okay? Do so until God gives you an oven to bake a great deal of bread and give it to everyone He wishes, in His time. But we are agents of God’s grace and mercy. And regarding these situations, brothers and sisters, I simply tell you this: I have no doubt in my heart that God has allowed this for something very, very powerful. Other times of suffering, earthquakes, and many other things will come, but it will all be the grace of God, always using this fallen world to create life. God is in the business of restoring creation, and we are part of that beautiful drama. Do not miss it; do not miss that privilege.

And above all, do not miss the privilege of being, one day at the end of time, among that multitude glorifying the name of the Lord—a multitude whose sound, it says, will be like the waters of the sea, declaring, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole Earth is full of His Glory.”

May the Lord bless you, and how beautiful it is to be part of a redeemed generation, a family that God is using for great purposes. I bless you in the name of the Lord. There in your heart, reaffirm your faith in Jesus; and if you do not know Christ, tell Him, “Lord, open my heart to You, so that I may know and understand You. May I not waste this opportunity You are giving me now in this life to prepare myself for the life to come, making Christ my boat, making Christ an instrument through whom I may reach the Father.”

Father, I bless Your people. Send us away from here on a note of victory, Lord, on a note of triumph, glory, and hope. We are not forsaken. Quite the opposite: You have something wonderful for us. We thank You, Lord Jesus; we bless You. Amen and amen. Glory to the name of the Lord. Brother, may the inexpressible grace of Christ Jesus be with you this day. I bless you in the name of the Lord, and we bless our city. Amen and amen.