Highjacking God — E.A. Johnston

Romans 8:28 and Its Proper Audience

I'd like to begin our message today, friends, by reading a familiar Bible verse. Many of us know it by heart. It's Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Let me preface my remarks by saying I believe this verse of Scripture has been one of the most hijacked verses from the Bible. The secular world applies it to them. Even Hollywood built a popular TV series around it and abused it for their own gain.

But we must ask ourselves the question, who is this verse speaking of? It's a part of an epistle of the apostle Paul, and it's addressed to believers only. He's writing to born-again believers who are called of God, saved by God, and who are living for God in a love relationship to Him.

If that's not you, friend, then this verse doesn't apply to you. You can't steal it or hijack it to make it fit your purposes. But now that I've established this premise, let me say this. The born-again believer, at times, will often hijack this verse as well, and even hijack God as well, to suit their purposes as well.

Man-Centered Church Growth and Ministry

This is typical of the pastor of a church who desires success in ministry. He graduates seminary and receives a call from a church within his denomination, and he goes about his task of doing all he can to grow that church with more members.

He may try to make his church relatable with the unchurched, so he removes the word Baptist from the title. It's no longer Faith Baptist Church, but Faith Church. Then he changes the music program to attract more young people, so he gets rid of all the old hymns about the blood, and he adds a rock band to the worship time.

He may even add some strobe disco lights for added visual effect. Then he shortens his sermon message to about 20 or 15 minutes, and he's sure that most of his message will be upbeat, positive, and uplifting, so that folks will be encouraged to return the following Sunday for more motivation.

After all, he believes you go to church to have a good time, so he does all he can to make sure his congregation has a good time, and he is quite successful with this strategy. People are coming in droves, parking lot is full every Sunday, to come to his church for a little slice of heaven and a lot of happiness.

Since his focus is church growth, he measures his success numerically. The more members he has, the more success he has. He makes sure his messages are upbeat and positive, and that they don't disturb anyone.

But there's two main problems to this man-centered methodology. First, his messages don't disturb anyone, and therefore, there's no conviction of sin, so nobody's getting saved. And people join his church, and they plant their lives there, and he grows his church numerically, but with the unconverted church member.

Secondly, he's guilty of hijacking the Bible for his own purposes, and hijacking God for his own purposes as well, for in his mind, he has a big ministry for God that he has worked hard for, and he wants God to get behind it and give him more power so he can do more of it, which is centered around his ministry philosophy of the happiness of man.

Just outside the sanctuary, he adds some comfortable lounge chairs and a coffee bar to make church feel more like a Starbucks, and he waters down his message to make it more palatable to sinful man, and he's quite the success within his denomination.

The False Measure of Ministerial Success

And he's called to bigger and bigger churches because he has a proven track record of growing a church, and one's ministerial success is gauged by brick and mortar and counting members. But he is blind to the fact he's guilty of hijacking God for his own purposes.

He wants success, and he wants God behind that success, so he keeps God behind him and out of view as much as possible. Sadly, many men finish their ministry as a little boy on the seashore playing in the sand who likes building things like sandcastles that may look good and hold up for a little while, and as the tide comes in, every shrimp has its hole, but it doesn't last as far as eternity is concerned, and it eventually will wash away.

Burnout and the Limits of Seminary Training

I had to find that out for myself. I graduated from two different seminaries with two doctorate degrees, and they didn't prepare me for what ministry really was. Ministry success isn't building the biggest church within your city or building the biggest church within your denomination, because if that's all your ministry is, then you've hijacked God for your own purposes, and your sandcastles that you built will one day wash away.

Personal Burnout and a Crisis in Ministry

All I can do, friend, is give you my story, and hopefully it may help you along the way to reset your priorities and have a more impacting life for God. Years ago, I was literally burning myself out for God.

I was working 20 hours a day, nonstop, maintaining a secular career and a ministry on top of it, where I was so overworked, I was getting only four hours of sleep at night. George Whitfield once told his London congregation, I fetched this sermon while most of you were asleep.

Whitfield burned himself out for God, dying at the age of 55. His famous comment was, I'd rather wear out than rust out, and he did just that. Well, I've just returned from England and Scotland, where I've been conducting research for my two-volume definitive biography on Whitfield, and I was plum wore out.

It was 2 .30 in the morning, and I was having trouble breathing. I felt like I was dying, so I rose from my bed and went to my study across the hall and plopped myself down before my open Bible. As I sat there exhausted, I told God I was throwing in the towel.

A Divine Encounter and God's Investment

I told him how tired I was and how worn out I was, and if it was all right with him, I was ready to go home to him right there and then. Well, I know I have friends in ministry who claim God speaks to them every day, and I don't doubt that the Holy Spirit influences their daily living, but there have been scant few times in my life where God has actually broken through the material atmosphere of this world to actually speak to me.

But when he has, it's been life-changing, and this was one of those times. In the Gospels, Jesus often responded to a question with a question. Well, that night at 2 .30 a .m., as I was hunched over my Bible with sweat pouring down my face and crying out to God to take my life because I was ready to come home to him, I heard a clear voice ask me a concise question, and the voice asked, What do you do for a living?

I answered, Investments. After a prolonged pause, I heard, I have an investment in you, and I will receive the dividends from my investment. Well, I went back to bed and got on with my life, but that day changed the entire way I served God from that point forward because I realized I'd been guilty of hijacking God for my own purposes as I served him.

I was working myself to death on this road of my own making and asking him to get behind me and bless it, and I didn't realize at the time all I was doing for God was building my own little sandcastles on the sand that look good down here but wouldn't hold up for eternity because they were for my purposes.

God's Purpose and Eternal Fruit

Romans 8 .28 tells us that God works in our lives for our good but not for our purposes, rather all things are for his purpose. When I fully realized that, all my service to God from that point forward was so he could receive the dividends off his investment for his glory.

For it all made sense to me then, and it still makes sense to me now, and since that time I've kept my focus on Jesus sitting on his throne ruling there while he gathers up here and gathers up there a few more dividends from a life spent for him and eternity.