Today, Pastor preached on not making excuses for not fulfilling the call of God in one's life. Some feel that they are not equipped for doing something for the Kingdom of God, some feel that they are going to fail, and some feel like they have had too much sin in their lives to contribute anything of worth.
Pastor read about Moses in the book of Exodus...Moses didn't want to go before Pharaoh and speak on behalf of God because he had "... never been eloquent.." and was "...slow of speech and tongue." Moses didn't feel fit to fulfill the call of God because he didn't think he was capable. But God answered to his fears by promising to help Moses speak and to tell him what to say.
In the book of Matthew, Peter denied Jesus three times. He denied knowing Him and denied being one of His followers. A short time later, despite this slight against Jesus, Peter was the one who preached the plan of Salvation on the Day of Pentecost in the book of Acts.
On our way home from service, Bryan and I had a really great discussion about feeling like there had been too much sin in our lives prior to coming back to the church and how that made it hard to do anything for God. Immediately a Scripture came to my mind: Psalm 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." When I first read these words as a young person, I didn't really understand the weight that they held. When I was a teen, Pastor had given an illustration to help better explain this particular text. (PS, I love when sermons stand out so much that you never forget them and you recall them years later when you NEED to hear it!) He said, and of course I'm paraphrasing, to picture the globe of the Earth. If you start here in Indiana, and head north, you will pass through Michigan, up into Canada and eventually you will reach the apex of the globe. At that point, if you continue on in a straight line, you will begin to head south through Russia and so on. However, if you start out heading east, you can circle the globe and never go so far as to begin heading west. You will always be going east. When you repent of your sins, God takes the sins of your past and casts them so far from you, that as long as you keep heading in the right direction, you will never again see them.
Like Moses, I am not eloquent. Like Peter, I tried to separate myself from the Lord so people wouldn't associate me with Him. And like everyone else, I have sin in my past that I feel will keep anything that I do for God from being of any worth. As far as God in concerned, there is nothing about us that will keep us from being used for His glory. Anything that we feel will make us incapable of doing a work for Him, whether it be a speech impediment or a physical disability or even the sins of our past, none of that matters to God. “...Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" (Exodus 4:11) God made all of us, and God doesn't make mistakes. He doesn't make junk. Use what God has given you, no matter what it is and no matter how insignificant it may feel. Because you may be able to reach a soul that no one else can reach.
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