Can God Use Ordinary Me?

Hey, thank you so much for tuning in today. My name is Ray Sweet from First Christian Church in Greensburg, Indiana.! As always, if you'd like to learn a little more about us, you can go to FCCgreensburg.com or you can check out the FCC Greensburg Facebook page and other social media.

But we're just pumped today to get into the Word of God. But most of all, let it get into us and change these hearts from the inside out. And today we are blessed to have our former lead pastor, Danny Wolford.

He was here from 2002 to 2020. Did an amazing job leading God's church and just doing a great work for the glory of God.

And we are blessed to have Danny back with us. And he is going to preach God's Word today. And I'm just excited to hear all that he is going to say about how God can use ordinary people just like you and just like me.

So Danny, take it away. Hey, everyone. Thanks for jumping on today. My name is Danny Wolford. And from 2002 to 2020, I had the privilege of pastoring at this church.

And since retirement in 2020, my wife and I have moved to Illinois where we are enjoying time with our kids and our grandkids.

But it's always a privilege for me to come back and to be able to share with you here at FCC. FCC will always have a special place in my heart. And I know that God is continuing just to do great things through the ministry here.

So I want to begin this morning with a question. Okay? And the question goes something like this. Can God use me?

Now, I want to throw a word in there. I want to say, can God use ordinary me? And the reason that I put ordinary in there is because I believe that that's how most of us view ourselves.

When we say, can God use me, we view ourselves as ordinary. And we say things like, well, you know, I'm not special. I'm not a super Christian. I don't have any talents.

I can't preach. I can't teach. I can't sing. I can't play an instrument. Can God really use me? And when we say, can God use me? And we respond, you know, in the negative, we kind of sound like Moses.

You remember Moses? Moses said, God, who me? Like, I don't speak well. You know, I'm slow of tongue. Gideon, when called by God, said, who me?

My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my family. David? David could have said, who me? I'm just a shepherd boy. I'm nobody special.

But look what God did through him. Saul Tarsus. Maybe he said, God can use me. I've persecuted Christians. I've killed Christians.

Can God really use me? Or what about Peter? You know, after Jesus' resurrection, and after Peter had denied Christ three times, after his resurrection, he told the women, go tell my disciples and Peter that I'm going to meet them.

When Peter was told that, what do you think he thought? Me? Who me? Could God really use me? After what I've done, he really wants me? So we're going to see where God can take the ordinary and turn it into the extraordinary.

If the Bible teaches anything, it teaches us that God can take the ordinary and use it in an extraordinary way. So by the end of this sermon, what I hope is that we can take that, can God use me, and change that to a statement, God can use me.

Not can God, but God can use me. But there's a caveat there. There's a couple of words, and if you have a pencil and paper, write this down.

The first word I want you to write down is the word available. Available carries the idea that we have to make ourselves available to God before God can even ever use us.

To be truly used by God, we've got to say, okay, God, here I am. Use me. There's an old hymn that goes something like this. I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, or mountain or plain or sea.

I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord. I'll be what you want me to be. To being available sheds a whole new light on how God, when and how God can use us.

If you remember back in the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 8, it says, Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Isaiah didn't send who me.

Isaiah said, send me. Isaiah said, I'm available. Send me. How many of you have made that prayer? Remember. Very simple prayer. God, whatever, whenever, wherever.

Because God wired you and me to give ourselves away. You know, there's a deep desire that's within all of us that we want to make a difference. That we want to live our lives in a way that's going to glorify God.

And you know what the Bible calls that? It calls it ministry. And anything that you do for others, in the name of Jesus, is ministry. Even as Jesus said, even if it's just a cup of water.

But here's the catch, right? God gives you a choice. He doesn't force you to make an impact with your life. He doesn't force you to give your life away in helping other people.

He doesn't force you into doing anything. You choose. And, listen to this, you can choose, if you want to, to live a totally self-centered, totally selfish life.

And many people do. So, to be all that God wants you to be, we must make ourselves available. But there's a second word I want you to write down. I want you to write down the word sacrifice.

And I want to be reading from Romans 6, verse 13. Here's what it says. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness.

Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to lay down your personal ambitions and your goals and your plans and your personal motivations and your desires and your drives?

Are you willing to set those aside to live for God's purposes? And what we're talking about here is a life of sacrifice. And make no mistake, sacrifice will cost you.

We read in 2 Samuel chapter 24 that King David, through the prophet Gad, was told to go and buy a threshing floor from Arana because he wanted him to build an altar and make a sacrifice there.

And as David is approaching, Arana sees him coming. He runs out to meet him and he inquires as to why David is there. And David says, I am here to buy your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord.

And Arana does what anyone would do. He offered the threshing floor to David for free. No cost. In fact, he said, I'll even throw in the wood, I'll throw in the oxen for the sacrifice.

And here's how Arana says it in 2 Samuel 24, 23. He says, Your majesty, Arana gives all this to the king. But in verse 24, David says this, But the king replied to Arana, No.

No. I insist on paying for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. And you say, Danny, that's a lot to ask.

And you are absolutely right. It's a lot to ask. And God asks it of you if you want to be used by Him. C.S. Lewis said this, The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.

So I want you to think about it this way. If Jesus really wasn't who He said He was, if He really didn't come and die on a cross for our sins, if He really didn't come and offer us eternal life through His resurrection, and He didn't do all those things, then all of this is a moot point.

But, on the other hand, if Jesus is who He says, if He did die for my sins, if He came down from heaven to this earth to give the ultimate sacrifice, then I owe Him my entire life.

But why in the world should anybody do that? Why in the world should anybody make that kind of sacrifice? Well, let me give you three straightforward answers.

Number one, because God did it for me. God will never ask you to do anything for Him that He hasn't already done for you. So the ultimate sacrifice is when God sent His own Son, Jesus Christ.

No one will ever sacrifice more for you than God has already done. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Genuine love is always sacrificial.

You cannot love somebody. You cannot love God without sacrificing. If you can show me a way to love without sacrificing, I'll sign up right now.

But you can't. Love always requires sacrifice. Sacrifice is the secret of a good marriage. It's where both partners must continually and intentionally make both large and small sacrifices for each other.

Sacrifice is the secret of a good family. You cannot have family harmony, family unity, without each person being willing to sacrifice for the good of the family. Sacrifice is the secret of a good friendship, a true friend, as the Bible says, sticks closer than a brother, and that's going to take some sacrifice.

Sacrifice is the secret of a good church. If our only concern is for what we want and we give no thought to others, then pretty soon we'll fizzle and die.

And God ordained the church to be people like Him. God is the greatest example of sacrificial giving, and He expects us to be like Him. Listen to this quote. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving.

Yes, we can give without loving. In fact, we probably do it all the time. But you cannot love without giving. Giving is the essence of love. Hebrews 9, 26, Christ came to take away all sin by sacrificing Himself.

And because of that, we need to sacrifice. We need Ephesians 5, 2, live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice for God.

So love is not getting. Love is giving. But here's the second one. Because it's what I was made to do. You were made to live for God's purposes, not your own.

And the sooner we understand that, the sooner we cooperate with that, the stress level goes way down in life. The frustration level is going way down in life because we get frustrated and we get under stress when we start trying to live your plan instead of God's plan for your life.

How many times have we done this? We make our plans, we map it all out, and then we have the audacity to come along and say, God, please bless my plans without ever giving any thought to His plans for your life.

Ephesians 2.10, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And I want you to notice, God has a plan, and we all know Jeremiah 29.11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

God says, I've got a plan for your life, and it's a good one. Do we really believe that? Do you believe that God's plan for your life is a good one and better than any plan that you could come up with on your own?

So God set up the universe under these basic principles. He set these principles because He wants us to be like Him. He wants us to be godly.

And one of the principles He set up is this, you get by giving. Whatever you give out, you're going to get back. So if you're giving out criticism, criticism, criticism, you're probably going to get back criticism. If you're giving out the cynicism, you're probably going to get back cynicism.

People are going to be questioning your motives. So what you sow is what you reap. And the way that we get is to give away. Now why did God set that as a universal law?

Because that's the way He is. God is a giver, He's generous, and He wants you to learn to be generous. And this comes from Matthew 10, verse 39, and this is red letter stuff.

So listen to this. Whoever finds their life will lose it. Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. So let me share with you some sound biblical advice.

If you're not happy, stop seeking happiness. Don't make happiness a goal. Happiness is not a goal in life. Find joy.

There's a difference between joy and happiness. They're not the same. Happiness depends on your surroundings. If everything around you is good, you're going to be happy. But joy comes from within.

Joy comes from God. It's that old song, I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Seeking happiness is like chasing a butterfly. The more you chase it, the more it's going to fly away.

Joy is a byproduct of being what God made you to be in the first place. And so when you focus on being what God made you to be, you're going to live with joy and that's guaranteed you can take it to the bank.

You'll have more joy than you ever thought possible. But here's the third one. Because God will reward you. Now, listen, let me say it right off. Because I don't want to be misunderstood.

We're not good here. Our salvation is not determined by our good works. We are not saved by what we do. We are saved by the grace of God.

And certainly I believe that there's some action to our salvation. It's like a free gift. If you give me a free gift and I take that gift but I don't open that gift and I set that gift up on a shelf and I never open it and I never use it, right?

What good is the gift? God's gift is free but yet He wants us to, first of all, He wants us to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He wants us to repent. In other words, we're walking one way and this way in life. We're going to go this way in life. We're going to go God's way. He wants us to confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

He wants us to be baptized for the forgiveness of our sin so that we might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then He wants us to live a Christ-like life. And that said, while our salvation is not determined by our good works, the Bible is very clear that God rewards us for our good works.

Listen to this. Hebrews 6.10, God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love that you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.

He says, when you sacrifice to help other people, that's showing love to God. When you help others, that's called ministry. When you minister others, when you serve others, God says, that's expressing love to me.

And here's what happens. Did you ever feel unappreciated? Like you helped somebody and they didn't seem appreciative and maybe they didn't even say thank you.

In fact, maybe they didn't even notice what you did. And pretty soon, you're going to start thinking, nobody notices. Nobody cares. Why bother?

What's the use? Why make the effort? And then here's what happens. You start determining who deserves your sacrifice, who deserves your help, and who deserves your ministry.

Have you ever turned someone away because you thought they don't deserve it? And I'm not sure that's our call.

God sends people to you. God puts people in your pathway for a reason. So I'm not sure I want to make that judgment call on who deserves my ministry and who doesn't.

Do you? God has not called us to judge. God has called us to serve. And when we do, we will be rewarded. And the greatest example of all of this that we've talked about today is the cross.

Everybody knows that Jesus died on a cross. It's part of history. It's a well-documented part of history. But many people have never accepted the fact that He died on a cross for you.

And when you break the law, somebody's got to pay. That's God's justice. God came and He said, your debt, your sin, your rap sheet is so big you deserve to go to hell for eternity.

However, He says, I love you and I'm going to take the punishment for you. I'm going to pay your bill. I'm going to take the rap. I'm going to cover your fine. I'm going to pay your debt. I'm going to serve your sentence.

That's how much God loves you that He was willing to send His Son to die on the cross for you. What are we willing to give back to Him? God was willing to sacrifice for you.

And all He wants to know is, are you willing to make yourself available? And are you willing to sacrifice all for His glory?

So the question is not, can God use me? The question is whether you will accept the fact that you can be used by God if you make yourselves available, if you say, God, here I am.

I may not be much, but here I am. and when you sacrifice your wants and your desires all for Him.

All throughout the Bible, we see how God took ordinary people and He did extraordinary things all for Him. Not because of their strength or their expertise or their ability, but because they were willing to step out in faith and commit to Him and to His will.

So the question is, are you? Let's close today with a simple six-word prayer. God, whatever, whenever, wherever, send me.

Well, thank you, Danny, so much for preaching God's Word to us today. And it really is true that God can take these broken vessels just like you, just like me, and He can use us in ways that we could never ask or imagine because He is that good and He is that powerful.

So today, we just want to offer you this invitation that if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or maybe you just got questions about our church here at First Christian Church of Greensburg, Indiana, or maybe you just want to ask some faith questions in general, you can reach out to us here at the church at 812-663-8488 or you can email me at ray at fccgreensburg.com.

Hey, God bless you. Hope you have a great week.