Can God Use Me?

It's natural for us to compare ourselves to others, but when we start to question our usefulness to God because others around us seem more gifted, it's easy to become discouraged. Today on Truth for Life, we learn how God can use our weaknesses for the unique role he has planned for us.

Here's Alistair Begg. I'd like us to turn to one verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The question that's on my heart tonight is a simple question which you may have asked from time to time, you may have asked it recently, and the question is, Can God use me? Can God use me?

I'm assuming tonight that you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, that you've understood the message of the gospel, that you've come in repentant faith and laid hold upon Christ's mercy for salvation, that you know yourself to be a member of the body of Christ, that you are desirous of progressing in the things of faith. And as you've taken those steps, whether short or long, whether over a short or long period of time, one of the areas of accusation that you've faced that has come from the evil one is this. God can use him, God can use her, God can use them, but God can't use you. And so fierce is the accusation many times that we find ourselves capitulating to such a statement and wondering whether God really can use us.

The emphasis in that kind of introspection focuses far more upon ourselves than ever it does upon God, and that compounds the problem. And so tonight I want merely to address this question in simple and yet I hope helpful terms in a word of reassurance to any of us who are wondering whether God has a place for us at all. I'd like to assure you in the words of the hymn that there's a work for Jesus that none but you can do.

God did not make you like the person next to you with distinct purpose. He made you as you are, he has redeemed you knowing who you are, and he wants now to take his truth and baptize it, if you like, through your personality, albeit your personality renewed in the image of the Lord Jesus, but he has a distinct place and a unique purpose and special pleasures for you, just you. Now the reason that we might say that with such confidence is because when God takes his heavenly treasure, namely the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, he has chosen to do with it what we don't do with earthly treasure. He has chosen to take the treasure of the gospel, and instead of putting it in treasures which are apparently and obviously to society very, very special, he has put it in jars that are earthenware and are ordinary. We see this in the lives of the apostles. I think it's Acts chapter 4 13, where after the apostles have gone out in the power of the Spirit and have ministered in the Word and in miraculous power, the people said that they were amazed by it all and they took knowledge of them.

Why? Because they were unlearned and they were ignorant men, they were rough in their schooling, and the thing that marked them out was that they had been with Jesus. It wasn't the container that the people noticed, but it was the jewel within the container. It wasn't the natural ability of the men, but it was the supernatural ability of God revealed through them.

And so when Paul writes to the Corinthians in his second letter, and his ministry has been questioned and challenged, his apostolic authority has been called into question, he says, you know, I could list my credentials before you. But the great wonder is this, that God has put his treasure in old clay pots and deliberately so that the power might be seen to belong to God and not to us. The earth and weird jars to which Paul referred were common as dirt. They were dirt. They were fragile. They were ten a penny, if you like, in the bazaars of the day.

They were of lowly use, and they were discarded easily. And he uses that very word, that phraseology, to describe himself, to describe the life of the believer, not to denigrate us as individuals, but to give us our rightful sense of who we are. And so tonight, for some of us, we look at our lives and we compare ourselves inevitably with other people. And we look around and we've got lots of people that we wish we were like. We wish we were quiet people, if we talk a lot.

We wish we could talk more if we're quiet people. And if we quantify ourselves on the basis of people around us, we can often be horribly discouraged. Let me say it again, God made you the way you are, to use you as you are, filled and empowered by the Spirit of God. He does not want you to be like the person next to you. He wants you to be like Jesus. And so tonight, as I think of this, it's precisely our frailty, it's precisely our finiteness, it's precisely our weakness, which makes us usable in the hands of God. That's what Paul says when he writes in the 12th chapter of the same letter about the 9th verse. He says, So when I am weak, then I am strong. Therefore I will delight in my weakness, because when I'm aware of my weakness, Christ's power rests upon me.

Fine, says everyone. If that's the case, give me an illustration. Well, which illustration would you like? I mean, would you like the illustration of Peter, who had a big mouth, he took one foot out and put the other foot in?

Do we want to use the illustration of Philip, who was always stuttering and stammering? We can go through the whole of the Bible. We want to use the illustration of Moses. Moses says, I've got a brother who's a fabulous speaker.

If only you if you only set your purposes on Aaron, he's your man. And God says to Moses, who made your mouth Moses? If I made your mouth, I'll fill your mouth, and with the things that I want to speak.

And we could go through the whole of the Bible and wonder at it again. Jeremiah says, Hey, I'm no good. I'm only a child. God says, don't say you're only a child.

When I take you up, I can do wonderful things with you. But the person who's the greatest encouragement to me of them all is Timothy. A young man, a pastor, ministering in an age similar to our own, an age of moral and doctrinal confusion. A young man who had had a heritage that went back through his mother and through his grandmother.

A young man who had been placed in ministry. And when he looked at himself, and he looked at the task, and he looked at the challenge, he said to himself, I am not fit for this. I don't need this. I don't want this.

It's nothing that I can accomplish. And if you like, there are more disqualifications in the life of Timothy than there are qualifications. Let me give you Timothy's disqualifications for ministry, and see if any of his or any of yours. First disqualification for Timothy to be used by God in ministry was that he was physically not a very fit individual.

Where do we get that from? 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 23. Paul writes to him, and he says, Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach. We all know he had a bad stomach, but we forget the next phrase, and for your frequent illnesses. So Timothy was always getting sick. He was the kind of kid who was always getting a note from his mother saying, please excuse Timothy's absence from school, as such and such is wrong with him. He was the kind of person who if interviewed by a modern missionary organization would probably be sidelined because of his physical condition. He was perhaps very, very frail.

Do you remember a modern missionary just like that? Myriad of them, one that comes immediately to mind is Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was hardly in school up to the age of 11.

Up to the age of 11. He was a disaster. He wasn't fit. He wasn't strong. He was a poor child in many ways. And yet he told his mom and dad when he was five one night at tea, I'm going to be a missionary in China one day, mom.

And he was. And a missionary doctor at that. And some of us are here tonight, and one of our greatest alibis for usefulness is our physical condition. Oh, I've got such a bad back. Oh, if only I could sit. Oh, if only I could stand. Oh, if only I could walk.

If only I could run. The Lord knows all about what we can and what we can't do, and our physical impairment is no detriment to the fulfillment of his purposes if he sets his hand upon our lives. That was his first disqualification. His second disqualification was that he wasn't only physically weak, but he was naturally timid. He was not the kind of young man who was immediately in charge of a situation. He was not the kind of individual who went into a room and took control, but rather he was diffident. When Paul writes his first letter to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 16 10, he says, when Timothy comes to see you, put him at his ease.

Now, you don't send word ahead to put somebody at their ease unless they are by nature ill at ease, unless they're the kind of person who finds it difficult to go, and some of us are just like that. And we have excused our involvement in ministry because we think that our natural timidity is a more powerful thing than God's power which he gives to negate that timidity. It was a disqualification for Timothy, and yet it never hindered God. Thirdly, his youthfulness. He was physically beat, he was naturally timid, and he was too young to be doing what he was doing as far as the majority of people were concerned. And as a result of his youthfulness, he had two key challenges. One was the challenge of inferiority, so that Paul has to say to him, don't let anybody disqualify you because of your youth. And the other challenge of youthfulness was the evil desires which are particular and peculiar to you, i.e. the stirrings up physically in the sexual realm of life, the longing after things, the longing to be well thought of, the longing to be prosperous, the longing to have this world's goods are uniquely true at that age of life. What age of life?

Somewhere between the realm of 35 and 40 years of age. So those of you who are feeling old, be encouraged. Paul writes to a 40 year old and says, don't let anybody despise your youthfulness.

It's ultimately no disqualification. Fourthly, his tendency to be ashamed of the gospel. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 8, Paul says, so do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord. And don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner.

Isn't that another one? The old smutty face comes to us and says, you were frightened in McDonald's to tell somebody you were a Christian. You were frightened to tell your friends at work that you love the Lord Jesus. You were frightened to invite them to worship with you.

You'll never be any good. Tell him to go back where he belongs and remind him of Timothy, who was also ashamed of the gospel. Didn't really want to be known as one of the ragtag and bobtails that hung around with Saul of Tarsus, who was a major troublemaker in the universe at that time. And Paul says to him, come on now, Timothy, don't disqualify yourself as a result of your shame.

And his fifth disqualification was a proneness to chuck it. Somebody asked me the other day, what is my greatest temptation in the ministry? And this is it, to chuck it. That's the greatest temptation which confronts me. Now, it may be that tomorrow it will be a different temptation. It's not the only temptation by any means, but it is the greatest temptation. That is to say, enough's enough.

Let's fold it up. And Timothy was just like that. That's why Paul wrote the first seven verses of 2 Timothy chapter 2 to remind him.

He said, it's a hard working farmer that receives the fruits of the crop. It's the soldier that keeps going. It's the athlete who keeps running, Timothy. You're not going to quit, are you? You're in a relay race, Timothy, and somebody's waiting to take the baton from you. You're not going to throw it down now, are you? You're not going to lie down in the middle of the track.

You're not going to walk away at this stage. No, no, Timothy, I have to urge you to keep going. Well, those were disqualifications for ministry. Physically weak, naturally timid, too young by the general standards of the day, prone to chuck it, and a tendency to be ashamed of the gospel. And what does Paul say to him? He says, God didn't give us a spirit of timidity, but he gave us a spirit of power, and of love, and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1.7.

Here's what I want to present you with as a challenge and conclusion. The early church grew without the aid of two things that we have deemed most important, and they're these. One, church buildings, and two, mass evangelism.

And with neither mass evangelism nor church buildings, the disciples went out and turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ. Now, that's not to denigrate mass evangelism. Every one of us here, doubtless has cause to thank God for the ministry of people like Billy Graham, whose sandals one is not fit even to one tie. But if you met him, he would tell you this, that the way to reach the masses is to reach them one by one. And it was to that same individual, Timothy, that Paul said, the things that you have heard from me, the same entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

If a group like this, and it would only need to be this group, in fact, if 50 of us were involved in it, in a commitment to reaching one, and two reaching two, and four reaching four, and on, then the growth in our fellowship would be absolutely unstoppable. And when we think of the ministry, let's not think in terms of professionals, let's not think in terms of pastoral superstars who make it happen, and we ride along in the back of the bus, but let's realize that God wants to use you as you are, vital to the ministry, special in his purposes, unique in the future. And when we take these things to heart, then we're able to rise to each new day and say, oh Lord, I want to be used by you today, either across the street or across the sea, but I want you to use me today.

I want to count for Jesus Christ. Leave me in my job, or move me out my job, use me here, or take me somewhere else, but use me. Let me know that I am part of your purposes. I'm only an old clay pot. I'm aware of my frailty, I'm aware of my fear, I'm aware of the futility that marks so much of me, but I am ready to be used.

Is there a prerequisite? Well, there are a number of them. One is spiritual fullness. And God never, ever filled a life that he first didn't clean. And if you wonder why it is that God does not flow through you and use you to the fullness that he might, part of the problem will be for some of us that there's a blockage in the pipe, that there's silt which is built up, the silt of a dirty mind, the silt of an unforgiving spirit, the silt of jealousy, the silt of a rebellious heart, the silt of all kinds of things flow into the pipe. And we wonder why it is that God does not flow through in all his fullness. When he lays his hand upon an individual, he takes us first to clean us, for cleanliness is a prerequisite of usefulness. May I encourage every one of us tonight to see that God has unique and special purposes for us.

You're perhaps a mum, and you're tied, as it were, to so many duties of children. Well, listen, God gave you children. Disciple them.

And in eternity, they'll rise and call you blessed. Of all the people whose names are on the roll of American churches, the statistics tell us five percent don't exist. Ten percent can't be found. Fifteen percent never attend.

Twenty-five percent attend only once on a Sunday. Fifty percent are involved in no meaningful ministry opportunity. Seventy-five percent have no family worship. Ninety percent have no devotional life. And ninety-five percent never lead a person to faith in Jesus Christ. And even when you allow for all the statistical analysis, if it's even marginally the case, it says this to us, hey, we better shake a leg, because Jesus is coming back, and time is getting short, and the world looks kind of dark, and our friends look kind of gloomy. And they might not come into our church building, but they will talk with us in McDonald's, and they will eat in our homes, and they will listen to us when we walk with them and talk with them on the way.

So don't let's use any excuses. Let's get down to business, you in your small corner, and I in mine. And it will not be to one another we give an account, but to Jesus Christ on the day of judgment. We need to make the most of the short time we have available to tell others about God's plan for salvation. That's from today's message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

Be sure to keep listening. Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. Alistair today gave us an encouraging reminder that God can use us despite our fears and our weaknesses. God has made each of us with a distinct purpose, and he empowers us by his Spirit to fulfill that purpose.

As Alistair mentioned, we need to shift our focus away from our own frailty and instead learn to trust in God alone. This is the lesson that's reinforced in a book we're recommending today. The book is called The God Contest. It retells the story of Elijah and his challenge to the prophets of Baal to identify who is the one true God.

You may be familiar with this Old Testament story from 1 Kings chapter 18. This book is a colorfully illustrated children's book. You'll find it very helpful, even for young children, for preschool and up, because The God Contest affirms that there is only one true God, the God who created the world and everything in it. Today's the final day the book is being offered, so be sure to request your copy of The God Contest before today ends. You'll find the book on the mobile app or online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can donate and request your copy of the book when you call 888-588-7884.

Today is also the final day of our series titled More Jars of Clay, and as a reminder you can make the entire series your own. It's available on a USB. It comes along with messages from an earlier series that's simply titled Jars of Clay. All 16 messages in these two studies are available for purchase on a single USB. It's available for just five dollars.

You'll find it by going online to truthforlife.org slash store, or you can order it by calling 888-588-7884. Now let's join Alistair as he closes in prayer. Oh God our Father, we thank you tonight that it is your purposes to make your strength made perfect in our weakness. We confess to you our weakness. I confess to you Lord how easy it is to become dispirited along the pathway of faith. How easy it is to forget the heritage that we've been privileged to know, but I thank you for the people around who say come on let's go. There's a race. There's a finishing tape, and tonight we praise you from our hearts for those who've helped us along the journey, and even today have helped us on the journey.

Yes we've had spikes in the shins and elbows in the ribs, but we understand it's part of running. We've been discouraged because the plants haven't grown as quickly as we might have liked, but we know that that must be part of being a farmer. Make us God what you want us to be. Make us clean. Make us useful. Make us men and women of God that we might win men and women for God, and all the more as we see the day of Jesus Christ's return drawing near, we commit one another to your care, asking that you will watch over and between us. Bless our lives as we live them out before you, and may we always be a help and never a hindrance to one another, so that on the day when we stand before you we may do so without shame and with cause to thank you for all of your grace, for we ask this committing one another lovingly to your care and keeping through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen. I'm Bob Lapeen. Thanks for listening. Join us tomorrow as we launch a series of messages from the book of Daniel that assures us that no matter what we face, God is still on the throne. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.