Chess Piece on Board of Life — E.A. Johnston

God's Sovereign Intervention in Human Lives

I believe a sovereign God can invade your life anytime he wants to. He can use a person to be his human instrument to bring change to your life, like a preacher or a friend. D .O. Moody's life was completely altered while he was in England one time, and a minister friend commented to him, the world has yet to see what God can do with the man wholly consecrated to him.

Moody's Response to a Call to Consecration

Moody walked away, muttering under his breath, my God, by your grace, make me that man. Moody said about that time, I couldn't get his remark out of my mind. On the journey back to America, on the sea, the very plank boards of the ship had those words of his carved out upon them.

And when I returned to the city of Chicago, it seemed as if every pavement stone of the sidewalk was engraved with those words, the world has yet to see what God can do with the man wholly consecrated to him.

Well Moody went out and became that man and obeyed God and did more for God than all of us put together. I remember some years ago when I was seeking a deeper experience of God and I often would go up to New England and visit Moody's home and his grave.

Praying for Revival at Moody's Grave

And one time in particular, I spent the whole day there at Northfield, I had it all to myself for the place was a ghost town, I spent the entire afternoon sitting on Moody's porch in prayer, praying for revival.

And then I climbed up the hill and stood on top, a round top, where he is buried. And I felt a very pungent presence of God there that day, it seemed the very grounds were permeated with a God consciousness and it made me weep and as I thought of Moody's life I stood there at his grave crying like a baby and as I walked back down the hill I cried out in a loud voice, my God, make me that man.

Spiritual Growth and Transformation

And I realized that I wanted to be a man wholly sold out to God, but God doesn't always do a thing overnight, it takes time to grow a tree to where it can produce shade. I believe God hears our sincere heart cries asking him for change, I believe God keeps a record in heaven of every vow we've made to him, even if we have long forgotten about it.

I believe God wants to effect change in us to make us more like his son Jesus and I believe my friend, God can invade our life in a moment to bring and effect change by his spirit and by his grace. When I was in high school I was on the chess team and every day after regular classes ended and the dismissal bell rang I would go to a room where chess boards were laid out on long tables and I would sit across an opponent and play the game of chess.

The Chessboard Metaphor for Divine Guidance

Oh, how I longed to learn all those strategic chess moves to when you had to view the chess board from a vantage point of future thinking moving in your mind, in your opponent's mind and strategically staying one step ahead of your opponent all the time.

I believe a sovereign God uses his servants as chess pieces on the board of life. I believe God can place a person in our path to alter our life for God, like God put that man in Moody's path and had him utter those words to Moody.

The strange thing is when Moody returned to England he couldn't wait to find that man and share with him what God had done. But that man couldn't even remember making that statement to Moody. It was as if God spoke through the man to Moody.

I believe God can speak to you, friend, through his human instruments. I believe God can move a piece on his divine chess board and put someone in your path to completely alter your life. It may be a friend, it may be a spouse, it may be a preacher.

Olford's Preaching and the Direction of a Life

For me it was a preacher that God used to change my life and alter the course and direction of my life. The preacher was Dr. Stephen F. Olford and after I heard him my life was never the same again. I had attended a week's worth of meetings on expository preaching at the Stephen Olford Institute in Memphis, Tennessee where the main speaker was Stephen Olford.

I went into those meetings one way and I came out quite another way. I knew my life would never be the same again and I'm going to try and explain, friends, what transpired in my life that week in case God is dealing with some of you right now and you're trying to sort it all out.

You're trying to sort out the desires in you to be more useful to God and to be more fruitful for God. Well, four main things happened to me that week under Dr. Olford's preaching. Number one, my world was thoroughly broken up.

Worldly Ambition Is Broken

I went in there full of the world with a desire to own more of the world for at the time I was a successful businessman. While I was there at a preaching institute with a room full of pastors when I wasn't a pastor myself and had no desire to become one, why was I there in the first place is a mystery to me, but God had led me there.

God had set me there strategically because God wanted to speak to me through his servant, Stephen Olford. Every day after each session, Dr. Olford would quote a poem by C. T. Studd, only one life which will soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last.

And those words would ring in my ears as I pondered them and I wondered if my own life has somehow been misdirected, that somehow I wasn't on the right path, that the path I cut for myself was my own path without ever considering what God had wanted for me, that the man I was then was not the man God wanted me to be.

That God had other plans for me other than the ones I had for myself of making a lot of money and succeeding in a business career, so my world was thoroughly broken up that day. Secondly, my person was utterly broken down.

Pride and Self-Reliance Are Broken

God used the preaching of Stephen Olford to completely strip me of my pride and break me of my self-righteousness and smash me of my self-reliance. I remember there was another man sitting beside me that I could observe was going through what I was going through.

He looked absolutely beaten up. God was dealing with both of us. Well, in the middle of the week, it was customary at the Olford Institute to take a group photo outside on the steps of the building. You'd be there standing there and Stephen Olford standing at the head of the line and they'd take a group photo and give it to you as a keepsake.

I still have my photo framed after all these years. But this man sitting next to me looked absolutely worn out and as he walked down the hallway to go outside to take our picture, I'll never forget his remark.

He said, first they beat you up with a hammer. Then they want to take your picture. Oh, this certainly was true of both of us. I often wondered what became of that man. So the second thing that occurred to me was my person was utterly broken down.

I was ground to powder under Stephen Olford's mighty preaching. The third thing that happened to me was the course of my life was completely changed. I went in there a businessman who loved making money.

A Life Redirected Toward Eternity

And when I left, business and making money no longer held any fascination for me. All I could see was eternity with the words ringing in my ears. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

I no longer wanted to live for this world and its amusements. All I wanted was to make a difference in this world for Christ. The course of my life was forever altered. And there's been no turning back.

No turning back. I had decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. And lastly, a great transformation occurred within me. For I became quite another man with a new purpose. I was no longer the same man.

Edward Studd's Conversion and Consecrated Service

I can only express this by a story about Edward Studd, the father of C .T. Studd. Edward Studd was a British millionaire who made his fortune in India. And he came back to England to spend it. Well, he bought the most expensive racehorses money could buy.

And soon he owned the best champion racehorses in all of England. No one could beat his thoroughbreds. One night, he went with a friend to hear D .O. Moody preach. And he went merely out of curiosity for he'd been reading about all the bad things.

The newspapers were writing about Moody. And he said, if the newspapers are saying all these bad things about this man, there must be something good about him. They were saying he was an uncouth, unlettered man from America who spoke poor English.

And because Studd was a wealthy gentleman, he and his friend were escorted to the very front row of the crowded auditorium. Well, a remarkable thing occurred that night as Studd listened to Moody preach.

He got saved. He later would comment, it was as if Moody was addressing him personally in his message. Edward Studd's life was completely turned upside down for God. And he sold all his racehorses. And he turned his country estate into a preaching chapel for visiting ministers.

And it was there his son, C .T. Studd, came to Christ during one of those meetings at his home. Well, one day a visitor asked the chauffeur what had come over his old friend, Edward Studd, who was behaving so peculiarly as a Christian.

The chauffeur remarked, all I can say is that there is a new man inside the same skin. Well, God had placed Moody on a chessboard in the life of Edward Studd. And I, too, became another man with a new purpose in my own life.

I wouldn't be here preaching to you today, friends, had God not invaded my life by setting, like a pawn on a chessboard, my life under the kingly chess piece of Stephen Oldford. Well, how about you, friend?

Responding to God's Call for Transformation

Has God been dealing with you? Has God been putting a desire in your life to do more for him? Have you been longing to be more useful to God? Have you been desiring to be more fruitful for God? Has God been dealing with you in a unique way?

It's no accident you have those desires for God has given them to you. And if God's been dealing with your soul during this message, friend, it's no mere coincidence that you're listening to me today on this transformed life in Christ, for if God is getting a hold of you, he's doing it with an intended purpose to bring change in your life for his glory and for his kingdom.

Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Let us pray.