Last night my husband I were listening to a sermon preached by Johnathan Suber at BOTT 2004, titled "I'll Holler if I have to". During this sermon, he made the comment "called in the brokenness ". I looked at my husband and said "that's a whole other sermon in itself!" I couldn't help but think how many times not only myself but others have felt unqualified, intimated and unworthy of being used much less called, because of our mistakes, our past, or our brokenness. Our brokenness can stem from childhood abuse, domestic abuse, or the guilt of our own rebellion and sinful choices.
First and foremost God has zero cares about how broken you are when it comes to being used. Actually, I am beginning to think the more broken, used, and the more colorful past the greater use you are. I can't back that statement up with scripture only provide you with the following examples of sinful, disobedient, used, and broken people that became key components in God's plans.
King David is one of the most highly revered and essential characters in the Bible. He was a world-class commandment breaker. He triumphed over a lion, a bear, and the infamous giant. God even used him to lead His people during a very difficult time. But even as a "man after God’s own heart," David had a shady history of making mistakes. I'll be honest and say a very shady. In fact, he broke HALF of the 10 commandments. Those of which include, conspiracy to commit murder (2 Samuel 11:17; 12:9), lying (2 Samuel 11: 7-8, 12-13), adultery (1 Samuel 11:4), coveting a neighbor’s wife (2 Samuel 11:3), and even stealing another man’s wife (2 Samuel 12:9). Even though his sins were many, he turned to God, confessed his sin, and asked for forgiveness. And God forgave him.
Tamar left her family at a young age to marry into the family of Judah. In these times, a woman’s value and status were determined by her offspring, but she had fertility issues with her first husband, Er, so God struck him down and she married a second brother, Onan. Onan refused to be with Tamar, so God punished him and he also died. Come on, at this point, she sounds like the original black widow. By law, Tamar then married a third brother and was still unable to conceive. Faced with the fear of being childless and destitute, she set out on a mission. Dressed as a prostitute, she coerced her father-in-law, Judah, to have sex with her and she bore twin sons. While her actions were unethical, to say the least, because that's just nasty! She almost lost her life for it, one of the sons was the ancestor of King David—a direct lineage to Christ.
Elijah had so many miraculous experiences, you’d think that he’d have pure unshakable faith. After all, he caused the rain to stop for more than three years (1 Kings 17:1), was fed by ravens (1 Kings 17:4), saw a limitless jar of flour and jug of oil (1 Kings 17:14), witnessed a widow’s son resurrected (1 Kings 17:22), and beat the prophets of Baal by calling down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:38). But when the showdown with the Baal worshipers so angered King Ahab and his wife Jezebel that she vowed to see him dead, Elijah couldn’t take it. The pressure of being such a high-profile prophet of God had gotten to Elijah and he hightailed it into the wilderness. Ran like he was running from the po-po! When God met him there, Elijah was undone, feeling like he was the only prophet left—confident that he was completely isolated and imperiled. How do you imagine God responded to Elijah? He fed Elijah and allowed him to rest. After a time, he finally answered Elijah’s complaints and He encouraged Elijah with a still, small voice that he was not alone. (1 Kings 19).
Jonah good old rebellious Jonah. In the first act of rebellion, he was like "Nah, thanks, Dawg!" and refused to go to Nineveh, and made like a baby and headed out. He then caught a water uber and headed to Tarshish. God sent a storm, but not just any storm but a storm that caused the first "man overboard" situation where he found himself in the belly of a big fish. (Jonah 4-7) The smell alone would throw me into repentance. However, after three days and three nights he repented (Jonah 2) then he was spat up like a hairball and headed to Nineveh. The second act of rebellion when God spares the city of Nineveh Jonah acts like a baby pouts and gets angry (Jonah 4). In these short four chapters, nearly everyone obeys including the wind and seas (the storm sent, Jonah 1:4) God except the called, Jonah the one sent by God.
Then there is Paul. Before Paul became the writer of most of the New Testament books, he was Saul, a holy terror to the early church. Not only was he present when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was killed, but he also gave the green light for this murder. (Acts 7:57–8:1). Uh wow! From there, Luke tells us that Saul made it his mission to destroy the church, going door to door in Jerusalem looking for people who followed Jesus so that he could throw them in prison. (Acts 8:3) After putting these people in prison, he planned to hunt down the Christians they sent a mail to. (Acts 22:4–5) On his way, he had an encounter with the resurrected Christ, and the rest is history. Did Paul regret his behavior before meeting Jesus? I would assume so. In his letter to Timothy, he said, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” (1 Tim. 1:15–16) For those who put their trust in Christ later in life, or if you're a prodigal son or daughter there are bound to be reasons you feel unqualified for service. But the gospel is so powerful that our transformation becomes a profound testimony to God’s goodness and grace. Don't limit God with your limited ability to believe you are called and qualified.
Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho over 1,000 years before Jesus was born, and somehow this sex worker ended up in the genealogy of Jesus himself as recorded in Matthew 1:5. He had plans for Rahab one thousand years before he became flesh. What? Yes, wow! A woman being mentioned in the genealogy is unheard of. And a prostitute? Never!) Except it happened because the God of the Bible loved her. Rahab’s full story is in the Old Testament part of the Bible in Joshua chapter 2. Totally worth the read! The moral of Rahab’s story is that God’s pleasure or displeasure with us isn’t based on our good or bad behavior; it’s based upon whether we exercise faith in Him. Acts of faith are what pleases God. And nothing else.
God used all these people to fulfill his purpose. He qualified every single one of these people regardless of what the world said. Regardless of their past. He called all these sinful, rebellious, broken, unqualified people and qualified them to fulfill his purpose. God doesn't need the approval of anyone to qualify YOU! And, if you think you think you have blown God's plans for your life you my, friend are not that powerful and God's story for you doesn't end when your mistakes began.
In ending today I challenge you to remind yourself of the following....
Your past does not define you
Your past does not dictate your future
Your past does not disqualify you
God can and will use you without the approval of anyone.
The world may say you're not qualified 1000 times, but God only has to say you're qualified once.
Hollie McCalip
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