Sermon Central
-
I’m Qualified Series
Contributed by Henry Lee Clay on Nov 29, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Regardless of what you have been through and in spite of how many times that you may have failed in your past, God can qualify you through the Lord Jesus Christ and use for His own glory.
I’m Qualified
One of the great quotes of the Bible is found in the Book of Isaiah where the God of Glory reveals through the prophet to us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways
saith the LORD.”(Isaiah 55:8)
The whole point and premise of that prophetic word was the fact that God sometimes acts in ways that are contrary or the exact opposite of how we think that God should act. And that sometimes God does things and allows things that just don’t make sense to us.
Some of the things that God allows we cannot fathom in our minds. Some of the things that God does, don’t make sense to us. Sometimes we are amazed at some of the people that God puts gift in.Because if we were honest some of the people that God is using or has used we would have never used, chosen or even thought about. Because we know some things about them that would make us say, “they don’t qualify”.
We‘d say stuff like. “They have issues, they’re not smart enough, they’re not intelligent enough. They do not have social status. They don’t have the right look.” Let’s be honest, all of us have seen some folks that are being used by God and said “how in the world did God choose them”?
That’s what’s wrong in the church.The church exercises a spirit of hypocritical perfection. Because we come in here and parade like pious peacocks of pomposity. As if we have it all together and stick our
sanctimonious nose of snubbery up at people of whose business we know. One of the reasons that so many people stay away from the church is because there are too many people in the church smelling themselves.
They stay away because they are made to feel less than because they have something or are into something that you don’t approve of. The church has developed a very cold and stuck up spirit. We hide behind our stain glassed windows and we walk or drive right pass people that are on their way to church and instead of stopping to bring them we say, “THANK GOD FOR THE FACT THAT PERSON DOESN’T GO TO OUR CHURCH”.
I don’t know about you but I’m glad that I am not perfect. Because if I were perfect I wouldn’t know
how to relate to people. If I were perfect I wouldn’t even know how to praise or to worship God. Because when I realize all of the things that God does for me that I cannot do for myself, if I’m perfect then I think that I can do it by myself. But when I admit that I’m not perfect then I admit that when I’m weak, God makes me strong. That gives me something to praise God for.
Admitting that I am imperfect helps me to worship God. Because worship is the result of a revelatory encounter with the divine nature of God. And there are many revelations that you would never get from God unless you were in an imperfect situation.There were some things that God could not reveal to you until you got yourself into something. And the only way that you could admit that is when you can admit that you are not perfect. Tell your neighbor if you ain‘t too mean, “I’m glad that I’m not perfect”.
Can I make an announcement? Your greatest power is not in your perfection. Your greatest power is in your regeneration. The greatest power that you have is to realize how jacked-up you were but God gave you another chance. The greatest power you have is the gratitude of your life. Because you recognize that in spite of yourself, God has given you another chance! I’ve got to preach this thing today.
In our text we find Peter in just that one little phrase that I read Peter as some of you may know always was usually always the first to do things amongst the apostles. Peter was a trip. He was the first on the water. First to open his mouth. He was the first to go ghetto and pull out the switchblade. Peter had a position of primacy.
It was his position of primacy or of being first that led him to presumption. Peter could be arrogant and offensive. He once said, “Lord I’ll never leave you or desert you or deny You”. And it was his spirit of presumption that prepared the way for his plunge.
He messed up. We know the story. It’s found in Luke 22:47-62. It was there that we find that Peter did in fact denied the Lord three times, cussed a little girl out and then ran away. He had great dysfunction but the fact that he is in this text raising his voice suggest that your dysfunction do not disqualify you from being used in the Kingdom of God.
