Do you ever feel like you aren’t good enough to be used for God’s plans and purposes in this life? Maybe you feel uneducated or more like an outcast. Maybe you don’t feel pretty enough or that you have enough money. One of the most amazing things about God is that He uses the most unlikely people, the broken, despised, rejected and outcast to make a difference in the world for His glory! Think about Moses- we all know how amazing Moses was, BUT God didn’t use Moses when he was the Prince of Egypt! God called Moses when he was just a shepherd! God uses unlikely people to display His ultimate power! It’s about HIS power and glory to be revealed and He can use anybody!

Read 1 Corin. 1:26-30

He is looking for a people who’s hearts are after Him. In and of ourselves, we have nothing to offer, but our willing hearts. We need to be open to who God can and will use. We cannot keep our eyes on man, but on God. If we keep our eyes on man, we will most assuredly miss what God can and wants to do. Too many Christians look at man and walk in disbelief that God can use them. We are very quick to judge man! 

Matthew 13:53  – “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Manget this wisdom and thesemighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Manget all these things?” So they were offended at Him.

But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” 

The people couldn’t believe that Jesus had so much wisdom and performed mighty works. They didn’t believe because they thought they knew Him. He was from their own hometown. They looked at the man and not God. They failed to see Him for who He was. Because they were filled with unbelief, Jesus could not do many mighty works. This can also be found in the recordings of Mark and in Luke. Some translations say Jesus could do NO mighty works! Imagine that! 

We know that Jesus wasn’t incapable of doing mighty works. Jesus is ALWAYS capable. It wasn’t even that the people didn’t have faith. We know that Jesus still performed miracles in those who had little to no faith. Jesus couldn’t perform mighty works because the people rejected him, HIS OWN people! Their eyes and hearts were closed to who HE was as the Son of the living God! Their eyes saw man. Their hearts refused to see glory! 

How does this relate to us? God works through people today just as He did then! Jesus may not be here walking on the earth amongst us, BUT He uses His sons and daughters here as his vessels. We need to remain open to who God can use, or again – we will miss the bigger picture of His plans! If we walk in disbelief like in Matthew, we limit what God can do! We then blame man for not being sufficient and capable when God never asked us to rely on man in the first place! He asked us to rely on HIS perfection as He works through the imperfect people! Wow, what a thought to chew on! 

In our generation, we are so easily offended, judgmental, full of anger and hatred. Everything has to be so politically correct, that we leave God out of the equation and decide to tweak His Word to fit our misguided world! We call ourselves Christians, but judge the people God is choosing to use! 

Let’s bring this closer to home. Take President Trump and Kanye West for example! Yes, we’re going there!  These are two people that profess to be Christ followers, right? But, all we have seen is judgment, hate, and criticism toward these people! Although we are using them as examples due to their current popularity, there are many more unfairly portrayed in the spotlight! When Kanye came out and professed to be a Christian, people (namely Christians) were slandering him. They were judging him on his past. Instead of praying for him and extending grace and letting his fruit be the basis by which we judge, we chose to walk in disbelief that his conversion is true.  We mock, point fingers, dig up and throw around his past. The sad part is the people that are doing this call themselves Christians! Who are we to judge someone else’s heart and if we are judging them, where is our own spiritual morality and conviction? Don’t forget – you are judging God by judging His people! 

Sound familiar? Reminds me of the verse we just read in Matthew! They rejected Jesus because they were in disbelief.  

Proverbs 21:1

“The kings heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases. People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.” 

WE HAVE TO REMAIN OPEN TO WHO GOD CAN USE!!! 

If we remain quick to judge and criticize, we can miss what God is wanting to do through someone. What if right now, because we are operating in judgment and division, we are limiting the works Jesus can do here on earth today? Because we are so fixated on trying to change other’s beliefs and opinions and judge their motives, we are literally tying God’s hands to change our Nation because we think we can do a better job. 

Again, if we look at the scripture in Matt. 13:53, Jesus could do very little or no works because of the people’s unbelief and judgment. It was Jesus they rejected because they thought they knew who he was based on what their eyes saw. 

We challenge you with this question – What if WE are the ones limiting what God can and wants to do in our Nation, in or marriages, in our families and churches? We judge what our Pastors are doing. We judge what our President is doing. We don’t like the way things are done, so we judge and ridicule. Are we not those same ones nailing Jesus to the cross ourselves?? We cry out for Gods mercy, miracles, signs and wonders, but could it be that we are not seeing them because of our own unbelief? We need to remove the blinders from our eyes. 

God can and will use whomever He wants to. God can change the heart of man.

Look at Paul who was once Saul. He was a murderer of Christians! God got a hold of him and he ended up being one of the most influential leaders, writing 13 books of the Bible, 2/3 of the New Testament and died a martyr for Christ! What would we think today if a prisoner, murderer was out on the streets preaching the gospel? Heck, we can’t even handle a rapper doing that! 

Read Acts 9:1-21

This is about Paul’s conversion. We know Paul persecuted the church. He put Christians in prison and even to death. What if there was someone like Paul in our generation, who was a murderer of Christians and then converted? I can imagine most would not want to see such a person converted and preaching. Most people would spew disbelief and hatred.   

Even in those times, people had a hard time believing. In Acts 10, God tells Ananias to go to Saul and lay hands on him so that he could receive his sight. In verse 13, Ananias at first tells the Lord how he has heard about him and all the harm he has done. But, God goes on to tell Ananias that Saul is a chosen vessel. Ananias listens and goes. So, even at first, Ananias wasn’t completely willing, but he obeys and lays hands on Saul, who’s vision was restored. Saul immediately begins preaching. 

Read Acts 9:21-27 

Anyone who persecutes believers today persecutes Jesus because believers are the body of Christ here on earth that HE ordained. Despite Ananias’s initial reaction to going to Saul, he obeyed what the Lord asked him to do. 

We cannot limit God, even when he leads us to difficult people and circumstances! We don’t know His will and plans! 

God can and will use anyone or anything He can to get His message across! In Numbers 22, He even spoke through a donkey! 

I mean, did we forget the people in the Bible who God used? 

Noah- a drunkard

Rahab- prostitute

David- adulterer and murderer the list goes on… 

Our God is the God of the impossible. He can and will use the least likely-those with willing hearts to be subjected to the criticisms of man, who will also perform miracles in places no one would expect! Jesus was born in a manger! Our very own Messiah was born unlikely, in a barn!! We need to get out of our boxes and limited understanding of WHO God is! Let us not limit God in who or what he can use to move this nation and generation! 

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”