Crooked Things

If you were honest with yourself, friend, you'd admit things between you and God haven't been right in a while. Perhaps your service to God lately has been just going through the motions. There's no passion or fire there.

Lately, you've been out of step with God and your relationship with Jesus has gone cold. You need a personal revival, but even when you pray for that, it doesn't come. You're still stuck in a spiritual rut.

Your situation is kind of like the inactive church member who ran into his pastor out on the street and the pastor greeted him by saying, well, hello, Bill, we've missed you. We haven't seen you at church lately. And Bill is full of excuses.

Well, pastor, you know, the flu bug's been going around and this rain seems like it just won't quit. It's been so wet lately. And the pastor replied, yes, well, it's always dry at church.

And that sums up your life lately, friend. It's always dry, dry spiritually. There's a dryness to your walk with God.

Things that once were fresh and alive have gone stale. In Isaiah chapter 42, we read in the word of God, and I will bring the blind by way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known.

I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them. They shall be turned back.

They should be greatly ashamed that trust in graven images that say to the molten images, you are our gods. I will stop there, friends. That statement from the Lord that says, I will make crooked things, crooked things straight.

That's what I want us to focus on today on making crooked things straighten our lives before God can bring us personal revival. We have to be honest with ourselves and straighten out the crooked things in our life that we've left undone. There is a remarkable story told by Duncan Campbell of the Lewis revival.

He said that during a series of meeting in a church while he was preaching, an elder stood up and walked out. Duncan thought to himself, oh no, I've done it again and offended someone. Well, the man was gone for three days, and when he returned, he approached Duncan Campbell with the following story.

The elder said, while you were preaching, I heard a little dog bark. Duncan Campbell replied, I heard no dog bark. Oh yes, said the man, a little dog barked for you say, when I was a lad, I stole a neighbor's dog, an expensive bird dog from a farmer, and I took it out of town to a neighboring farm and sold it for a nice profit.

And all these years have gone by and I had forgotten all about it until you were preaching. And I heard that little dog bark. So I got up from my seat and I left to go straighten things out.

I drove out to the farm where I had stolen the dog, but the old man was dead. His daughter now ran the farm. I confessed to her the crime I had committed, and I paid her the money for the dog plus interest all these years.

She was reluctant to take the money, but I insisted she take it. But then I drove out of town to try to find the farmer where I had sold the stolen puppy to, but the farm had long been sold. And after a day of inquiring around town, I tracked down a nephew to the farmer, and I told him my story of the awful deed, and I pressed into his hands the money for the dog plus all these years interest.

He was surprised, but he gladly took the money. Now, I'm back here at church, and I can say to you, preacher, with all my heart, that it's all aglow with the glorious presence of the Lord. Jesus has never been clearer and more dearer to me than he is this instant.

Well, that was the man's story. He had straightened out the crooked things in his life, and God had met him with personal revival. How about you, friend? Our text from Isaiah says, I will make the crooked things straight.

I had to do this myself before any reality could be in my sermon. I used to work for a man that had a filthy mouth. Every time this man opened his mouth, he damned God and cussed Jesus.

It was hard just to be around this man. His mouth was so filthy. Well, I began to pray for this man's salvation, and I developed a habit of praying for every day that I worked for him, but it did no good.

He just grew worse and worse, and he treated me unfairly. I feel because I was a Christian, out of spite, he fired me and put me in a difficult financial situation. Oh, how I grew to hate that man.

My bitterness against him just grew and grew, but I read this passage in Isaiah about the crooked things. I realized I could go no further with God until I forgave this man and straightened out that crooked thing in my life. So I sat down, and I wrote him a letter.

I told him that while I worked for him, I had prayed for him every day to know Jesus. Then I told him, the God you damn and the Jesus you curse, every time you open your mouth, died on a bloody cross for your sins. But if you repent and believe on him, he will save you.

Then in the letter, I included a gospel track that I thought he could relate to. I signed and sealed the letter, and I mailed it to him. Well, all that bitterness I had for him was taken away that day.

Is there a crooked thing in your life, friend, that needs to be made straight? Maybe you took something that didn't belong to you, like that man and the dog. Perhaps you cheated someone, or you cheated on someone. Maybe you misused a person's trust, or took advantage of a friendship.

Perhaps you lied to another, and that lie has never been exposed and made right. Or perhaps you didn't keep your word and follow through on a promise you made to someone. You let them down.

They were counting on you, and you were nowhere to be found. Or your crooked thing is the fact of a great sin of omission, something you should have done, and you did not do. It was no big deal to you, but it was a big deal to God.

Maybe you told God you were going to do a thing, and you never did it. But the crooked thing in your life, friend, is not so much between you and your fellow man, but between you and your God. Well, it needs to be settled.

Whatever the issue is, and whatever the issue was, there may be some glaring crooked things in your life that still need straightening out. And before God can shower you with revival, and have you go deeper with Him, and give you further usefulness to Him, you need to put the crooked thing straight in your life. Take some time now, friend, and get along with God in prayer, and reflect on those things, and ask the Spirit of the Lord to shine a light on your life, and listen to see if you hear a little dog bark.

And then ask the Lord to help you make restitution, and to straighten out what has been left crooked. Let us pray.