Chancellor urges students to obey, trust God’s leading

Ministers must follow God’s direction with obedience and trust, even if it leads to a time of obscurity or solitude, O. S. Hawkins, chancellor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, urged students during his Jan. 22 Chancellor’s Address.

Hawkins shared how the prophet Elijah, first introduced in 1 Kings 17 as merely a Tishbite, followed the Lord’s direction to hide by the brook Cherith, where God promised He would provide for him through ravens. This instance of being alone with God came before Elijah witnessed God raining down fire on Mount Carmel and even before he became known as “the man of God,” Hawkins pointed out.

“The most important journey Elijah ever took was not up on Mount Carmel but was to this obscure little brook in the middle of nowhere, isolated and alone with God, this little trip to the brook Cherith,” Hawkins said.

After recognizing God’s plan for him to flee the presence of King Ahab, Hawkins said Elijah also had to follow His direction to a specific brook. Only there did God promise to provide food for Elijah.

“You know what happens to many of us in ministry? We want to be on the mountain top all the time,” Hawkins said. “We want the glory. We want to see God work in such power. We want to be on the mountain top. And too few of us want to pay the price of preparation, isolated at some brook Cherith.”

Hawkins listed other individuals in the Scripture who first had time of obscurity before they were called to service for God, including Moses, Joseph, and even Jesus before beginning His earthly ministry. Hawkins said God may be calling Southwestern students to a place of repentance, salvation, reconciliation, or restitution before God can use them in ministry.

“It’s a very important thing to be where God told you to be and to do what God told you to do,” he said. “… God has promised to meet you and bless you there, in the middle of His will.”

When Elijah knew God’s plan and knew where God wanted him to be, Hawkins pointed out it was then up to him to obey if Elijah was to receive the provision God promised.

“There was no doubt, there was no defiance, there was no delay,” Hawkins said. “He immediately obeyed. Many of us live outside of the providence, the blessing of God at this very point of obedience.”

Hawkins said believers may choose to not obey the Lord’s direction because they do not trust Him, and they do not trust Him because they do not truly know Him from what is revealed in His Word.

But after a time when the Lord provided food for Elijah through the ravens and water from the small brook, Hawkins said further testing came for the prophet in 1 Kings 17:7, where it declares the brook dried up because of the famine.

“I think Elijah’s heart was being tested to see if his trust was in the brook or in the living God,” he said, adding it is easy for believers to begin to trust in the blessing itself instead of the Giver of the blessing. “… God may be testing you to see if your trust is really in Him or in the brook. You see the very thing that God sends to bless us sometimes can be our curse when we begin to move our focus away from the One who’s the source of that blessing to the very blessing itself.”

Hawkins encouraged the Southwestern community to not be discouraged when a brook dries up even when they are where God called them seems to be, whether that time of famine is in their health, resources, or relationships.

“Why does the Lord allow that? … To drain us of ourselves, to teach us to trust in Him and not in the brook,” Hawkins said, pointing out that God led Elijah to another place of provision in the very next verse.

“I don’t know where your ‘there’ is this morning,” Hawkins said of the particular calling of his listeners. “But I know God will meet you. Go there. … And if while there the brook dries up, just remember that’s God’s way of teaching you to trust in Him and not the brook. There must be a Cherith to fit us for the Mount Carmel experiences of life. Go there in obedience.”

Hawkins is a two-time graduate of Southwestern, earning the Master of Divinity in 1974 and Doctor of Philosophy in 2020. He served as pastor at various churches, including First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale and First Baptist Church of Dallas, before becoming the president and CEO of Guidestone Financial Resources. Hawkins retired from Guidestone in 2022 after leading the Southern Baptist entity for 25 years. He currently serves as chancellor, senior professor of pastoral ministry and evangelism, and the L.R. Scarborough Chair of Evangelism (“Chair of Fire”) at Southwestern.

View the entire chapel sermon here. Chapel is held in the MacGorman Chapel at 11 a.m. (CT) every Tuesday and Thursday and can be streamed live at swbts.live.