Speas: A life-changing encounter
By Melissa Lilley
GREENSBORO (BSCNC Communications) - Holy, holy, holy,” declared all the messengers sitting on the right side of the room. “Answer,” said Rick Speas to the messengers sitting on the left side and in unison they replied “holy, holy, holy.” “Again,” Speas said, walking back to the other side of the stage. The crowd on the right side cried out, “holy, holy, holy,” to which the other side responded the same. “Can you imagine this in the throne room of God?” Speas asked. “It is overwhelming and it is also convicting.” Hearing the people in that room declare with one voice the holiness of God, and just thinking about what it will be like one day in heaven with saints from all nations, was chilling in itself.
Speas focused his President’s Address Tuesday morning on Isaiah 6:1-8 and asked North Carolina Baptists to imagine what it must have been like for Isaiah to encounter God. Sometimes believers become so familiar with God’s Word, or at least they think they are, that reading Scripture becomes a skimming of text and simply re-reading passages that could be recited from memory. This morning, Speas helped messengers meditate on God’s Word and grasp the reality of its truth, for Scripture indeed describes what it was like in the throne room, but how often do believers stop to think about this description? “There are Seraphim present for crying out loud,” Speas said. “The word literally means ‘burning ones.’ These creatures of flame and light were involved in continuous worship and service to God.” With two wings they covered their faces, with two wings they covered their feet and with two wings they kept flying, constantly ready to serve. “Our call, North Carolina Baptists, is to look to Jesus. Let us see the same One Isaiah saw,” Speas said. “He saw the preincarnate Lord Jesus. We see the risen Lord Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.”
Speas began his address with a story that though humorous, made an important point. He shared his love of NASCAR and, because of his father's influence, Speas was a "hardcore" Richard Petty fan. As an 11-year-old boy Speas and his family visited Petty Enterprises in Level Cross and who should be on site that day but none other than Petty himself. “Here was the moment I had dreamed of,” Speas said. “I was standing beside Richard Petty. Richard was a tall dude. I looked up at him and I can remember to this very day what I said to him. I didn’t say anything. Not a word. I was in complete awe of king Richard.”
The crowd laughed as Speas reenacted the scene from his childhood, standing there looking up with his mouth open. But Speas quickly got to the point. “While we can laugh at such an experience for me as an 11-year-old kid, there is another King before which we shall all stand one day. And this King is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is King Jesus,” he said. “To be in the presence of God, King Jesus, what an awesome moment that will be. But, we are in His presence right now. He is here.”
During the time of Isaiah, king Uzziah had died and the people began to fear. They got restless and anxious about what would come next. “I wonder how many North Carolina Baptists in this room are asking the same question today – what next?” Speas said. Whether it is a marriage in trouble, or lack of employment, or decision that needs to be made, people are struggling. The answer to what comes next is this: Follow Isaiah’s example. In the midst of turmoil and instability, Holy Scripture teaches that Isaiah looked to God. “I challenge us, North Carolina Baptists, to look to Jesus today,” Speas said. “This Convention has been through a lot of change and transition over the past few years. Some have been discontented with denominations and with the Convention. Let me say to you, having spent four years on this platform and in meetings all over the place, I believe there are bright days ahead for North Carolina Baptists.”
Speas noted that an encounter with God begins with recognition of and commitment to His Lordship. He supports working toward a Great Commission Resurgence, and the Great Commission Resurgence is outlined by 10 commitment statements. “While I support this effort and I am praying for this effort, and I support the commitment statements, in a very real sense, if we will just get serious about the first one, the rest of them will take care of themselves,” he said.
Isaiah did not just encounter God – he heard from God. Isaiah cried out “woe is me” because “in the holiness of God he recognized how unholy he was,” Speas said. “His encounter with the living God gave him a clear realization of his own sin” and so he “immediately confesses his sin before God.” Perhaps North Carolina Baptists have something to learn from Isaiah’s actions. “Could it be that our sin more than anything else is the one thing that is keeping us from being all that God wants us to be as individuals, families, churches, associations and this Convention?” Speas said.
Sometimes encountering God, and hearing from God, means believers must get uncomfortable. Confessing sin is not fun and it is not easy. Sometimes it is painful, as evidenced in Speas' quote from Dr. Alan Redpath: “When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible man and crushes him.” Speas said that for North Carolina Baptists to be all God wants them to be, “we must be broken before the Lord” just as Isaiah was broken before the Lord. Yet, what is truly glorious is the fact that, as Isaiah 6:6-7 says, God declares iniquity removed and He forgives when His people confess sin. “Do you see what God does with this broken man before him? I can explain it in one word: grace,” Speas said.
When North Carolina Baptists experience a life-changing encounter with God, they are then ready to hear, and answer, the same question God asked Isaiah: Whom shall I send? “I am asking you, North Carolina Baptists, will we be the ones? More personally, will you be the one?” Speas asked. “I believe God is coming at us this morning in a mighty way. God is among us.”
