Bring a flashlight to class or use the flashlight on your smartphone.

Transcription

1 May 17 God chose many people in the Bible who, by their own estimation or that of others, were not the most likely candidates for the job, but who all did great things for the kingdom. God may be calling us to do certain things for which we do not consider ourselves to be likely candidates. Bring a flashlight to class or use the flashlight on your smartphone. Turn the light on and ask the class, How many of you would say that this flashlight is making a significant impact on lighting the room? Turn it on and off a couple of times for added effect. Next, have a volunteer turn the lights in the classroom off while you keep the flashlight on. Ask the class, Now how many of you would say that the flashlight is making a significant impact on lighting the room? Is this flashlight shining any brighter than it was before? Many of us may feel at times like the flashlight in the illustration. Maybe you work for a large company, are part of a large family, or just feel sometimes like you are another face in the crowd. Perhaps you even feel like this at MRCC in a church of over 2,000 members. It may seem like if you were to turn your flashlight off that no one would ever notice, but the important thing to remember is that the collective amount of light in a room is just a sum of all of the smaller lights, thus making the light coming from every one of them important. -1 -

2 Many characters in the Bible saw themselves, or were seen by others, as just an average, ordinary flashlight with no characteristics that made them any more qualified than the next person for the job God asked them to do. Yet because they were able to get past their lack of confidence and accept God s call, they went on to do great things for the kingdom. Let s take a closer look. The table below is designed to be something you can draw on the whiteboard in your classroom. If you do not have a whiteboard, you could pass out blank sheets of paper to the class and have them each draw their own table. The suggested approach is: 1. Write the four column headings on the board. 2. Write the first scripture and character reference, then have someone read the scripture. To reduce transition time between verses, consider assigning the verses to volunteers before class begins. 3. Ask the class to provide input as to what should go in the boxes for the two columns titled What Characters Saw in Themselves and What God Saw in the Characters. 4. Repeat this approach for the remaining scriptures/characters. When finished, your whiteboard will probably look similar to this: Scripture Character What Characters Saw in Themselves What God Saw in the Characters Genesis 15:3-5 Exodus 4:10-12 Judges 6:15-16 Esther 4:9-14 Abraham I have no children. Your offspring will be countless. Moses I can t speak. I ll help you and teach you what to say. Gideon I m the least of the least. I will be with you. Esther The King may put me to death. You have come to royal position for such a time as this. Jeremiah 1:6-8 Jeremiah I don t know how to speak; I am only a child. I am with you and will rescue you. Most of the characters saw their issues as flaws. How did God see them? While all of these characters ended up doing what God asked, their responses were quite different. Abraham believed, Sarah laughed, Moses asked God to send someone else, Gideon asked for a sign, and Esther fasted. -2 -

3 What can we learn about how our responses should be when God calls us? Read Matthew 19:16-22 It may be easy to read the stories of the five characters we discussed and think that dropping your fears and concerns about following God s request is easy, but that is not always the case. This story shows an example of someone who had a similar opportunity but chose not to follow God. What fears or excuses might we be likely to make when God calls us to do things outside of our comfort zone? How could thinking about what God saw in Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Esther, and Jeremiah have helped the rich young man in this story decide to follow Christ? (Refer to the 4th column on the whiteboard if needed.) We will use the same approach as the previous section of drawing a table on the whiteboard or on sheets of paper. Use the same approach in filling it out with the class as before, but note the change in the heading of the third column. When finished, your whiteboard will probably look similar to this: Scripture Character What Others Saw in the Characters What God Saw in the Characters Genesis 45:4-5 Joseph His brothers never wanted to see him again. I will save many people from the famine through Joseph. 1 Samuel 17:32-33 David He s just a boy. I will be the one fighting the battle through David. Acts 4:5,13 Peter & John They are unschooled, ordinary men. They will teach many people the Good News. Acts 9:10-15 Paul This man kills Christians. This man is my chosen instrument. Matthew 13:53-57 Jesus He s just a carpenter s son that grew up in this town. This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him. In 1 Samuel 16:7, we learn that The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. -3 -

4 In what ways do we let the opinions of others influence our trust in God and our willingness to follow His desire for our lives? In Acts 9, we read how Paul became a great preacher of the Gospel, but when he arrived in Jerusalem, all of the Christians there were afraid of him, not believing that he was a true disciple. Fortunately for Paul (and for the rest of Christianity!), Barnabas spoke up and helped the believers welcome him. In what ways might we as Christians be skeptical of other believers based on their pasts or their characteristics? How can we, like Barnabas, learn to see people s potential, not their problems? In Acts 10 and the following chapters, we see how God revealed his plan for Gentiles to become Christians as well. At first, the Jewish Christians likely saw Gentiles as the most unlikely candidates of all to become Christians, but with God s help, they eventually welcomed them as brothers and sisters. What groups of people in today s world might we as Christians still tend to overlook as potential candidates to become believers? How can we reach out to these groups? In today s information age, we are blessed to hear many stories of Christians throughout the world today who might be considered unlikely candidates. Maybe it s the story of an atheist becoming a Christian or the story of a remote African village turning to Christ. While stories like these are amazing, sometimes it may be hard to realize that God gives all of us opportunities to be unlikely candidates. For many ministries at MRCC, some of us might have in our minds a picture of what a likely candidate would look like for those ministries, but in actuality, most have a very broad range of participants. Here are a few examples: Journey Land and Pre-K teachers range from married people to singles, college students to senior citizens, and veterans with decades of teaching experience to first-timers. The Prison Ministry includes a wide variety of volunteers, such as elders and their wives as well as former prisoners who have been converted through the ministry. World Bible School has volunteers ranging from seasoned missionaries to new Christians. Wide ranges of ages and backgrounds can also be found amongst Orvis Risner Elementary tutors, Celebrate Recovery members, LTC (Leadership Training for Christ) coaches, and dozens of other ministries. What ministries have you never considered being involved in that God might be calling you to? For the ministries you are involved in, what people have you never considered inviting to join you in those ministries? -4 -

5 Of the people you come in contact with outside the church over the normal course of a week, with which of those have you never considered interacting or putting in a good word for Jesus? For next week, our thread is God Demands Obedience but Shows Mercy. -5 -