THE GREAT COMMISSION: When You Feel Disqualified

“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go…?’” Exodus 3:11

Moses felt too flawed to be used by God. Maybe you’ve felt that way, too. But God doesn’t need perfection He needs surrender. Your past, your pain, your story - they all play a role in how God uses you to reach others. Last week I shared the highlights of my testimony, and you may have resonated with that. Maybe you’re like me and your story is intense and full of trials and issues, or it could seem more linear and straightforward where you grew up in a Christian household, and you’ve always known the peace and hope of God without the “dramatics” of life. God still uses that and He delights to do so! No matter the narrative, God loves your story and you are qualified.

Christine Caine famously said “God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called”. There may be 100 things that could disqualify you in a natural world, but you only need 1 thing to be qualified and that is called by a supernatural God.

I think it’s easy for us to disqualify ourselves because we are our own worst critics. We know our sin and our shortcomings, the worst parts of ourselves, and we don’t put that on social media. We don’t want people to know that our spouse cheated on us, we’re behind on rent, our dog got COVID and ran away, we have anger issues, addictions - whatever misfortune comes our way we keep it in the closest and only present the highlights of our lives. Why? Because everyone else does the same. Do we do it to make ourselves feel better about our own lives or to make us look better than we really are to others? Do we fear being disqualified and uninvited by others?

A few years ago, I wrote my first sermon ever for ministry college on this idea God was speaking to me about being impressive verses known. As you can imagine, the sermon wasn’t great and I’ve since gone back and rewrote it, but we can either be impressive or we can be known. We can showcase our strengths and best features, gaining the awes and applause of people or we can show our scars and issues and be in community with folks who truly know and love us. But it’s hard to do both, because your impressions become less effective once your imperfections are known.

Think of David. As a kid, a shepherd in the fields, he defeated Goliath and was anointed as king. Although he didn’t take the throne for another 15 years or so, but that reputation followed him. Once he became king, he had it all. The money, fame, authority, women, he was that guy. All of that impressiveness went to the wayside when he took advantage of Bathsheba and had Uriah killed to cover it up. He still remained king, but barely. His family suffered incredible pain and consequences and his respect, authority, and good charity with the people took a massive hit.

But despite all of that, God still used David. He wasn’t “useless” by any means. Because he was a man after God’s own heart and God had plans for David he was committed to accomplishing. Although he may have been disqualified in the eyes of public opinion, the call of God was not revoked. Moses was the same way, and so was Rahab. The lineage of Jesus is full of people who would have been disqualified in the eyes of people, and that was done by design in part to show us that your story isn’t over. You’re not written off. You’re not too far gone, too far disqualified, because when God calls us to do something with Him and for Him then who can stop us?

FOUNDATION PROMPTS:

• Where might you feel disqualified?

• Where did you get this idea from?

• How might God use your story anyway?