SERVICES: SATURDAY 6PM | SUNDAY 9AM & 10:45AM. 

We Livestream at www.FaithFellowshipWeb.com/livestream, through the FFC App, and YouTube.

Road-builders

Road-builders
Words of Faith 9-8-16
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2016
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

John 1
[19] Now this was John's testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. [20] He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, "I am not the Christ."
[21] They asked him, "Then who are you? Are you Elijah?"
He said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
[22] Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
[23] John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.' "
[24] Now some Pharisees who had been sent [25] questioned him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"
[26] "I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know. [27] He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie."
[28] This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

So just who was John the Baptizer? John had gained a great deal of attention preaching in the wilderness, so much so that the religious authorities sent a delegation to check him out and see who he was.
1) Was he Messiah? Nope. John was clear that he was not the “Anointed One”.
2) Was he Elijah raised from the dead? Malachi had prophesied: "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse" (Mal 4:5-6). John seemed to fit the bill but he was not Elijah.
3) How about “the Prophet”? God's word to Moses said: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him" (Deut 18:15). John was not “the Prophet” either.
"So just who are you?"
Answer? “A road-builder,” said John. Just a road-builder. The scripture quoted is from Isaiah. It uses the image of preparing a road for the king through open and uneven territory so that he may travel over a smooth highway. John the Baptizer called himself the "road-builder" knowing that one greater than he would follow him.
Road building takes a long time. It is not easy. Ask an engineer and you will learn that road building requires enormous movement of earth and obstacles to make a straight path.
Road building requires blasting through terrain and filling in low place all so that the King can ride smoothly into the city of a man’s heart. Road building requires patience, tenacity, and hard work. Road building has no glory.
Once a smooth road is completed, no one typically thinks, “Oh what a great job this road-builder has done!” But the King of kings who rides into the hearts of men will likely declare, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
John understood clearly that there was One standing among them who would come after him, the thongs of whose sandals he was not worthy to untie. John was not the King, he was just a construction worker.
Are we really so different? We may not be a John the Baptizer but we are also called to build roads upon which the King will ride into the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. There are obstacles to remove, terrain to smooth and low places to fill. There is no glory in it for us, only glory for the King. But as we labor in His strength we behold His glory.
Look around. Is there some road building to do?

Father, show me the roads You want me to work on today. Give me Your plans and design. Show me the paths I need to straighten and rough places that need to be smoothed. Give me the power of Your Spirit to do this work. In Jesus’ Name.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2002, 2016
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an E-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an E-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.