Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Am I Really Up to the Task, God? | My Favorite Verses | Isaiah 6.8

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

Maybe you want to serve or you feel called to something, but you're not sure if you're ready yet. You might be wondering if now's the time. Get some guidance and encouragement from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Pastor Keith Simon )as he continues our series on My Favorite Verses with https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+6.8&version=ESV (Isaiah 6.8). Interested in more content like this? Check out https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/why-god-chooses-the-humble-learning-to-follow-jesus-luke-146-55/ (Why God Chooses the Humble) and https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/who-jesus-chooses-to-follow-him-mark-mark-2-13-17/ (Who Jesus Chooses to Follow Him). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to Tim Minut Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. My name is Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. We are currently exploring some of our favorite Bible verses and how they've changed our lives. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, Ask TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. In about 700 BC, King Uzziah dies. King Uzziah is king of Judah, the southern tribes of Israel, and he was a good king.

And so the prophet Isaiah, he's concerned about the nation. He's concerned about what King Uzziah's death means. And so he takes his problems into the temple to process them. And when Isaiah goes into the temple, he meets God. God shows up in a powerful way. and Isaiah is overcome. He falls down before God. He sees his own sin. He confesses his sin. He seeks God's forgiveness. And then he hears God ask, who shall I sin? Who will go for us? And Isaiah says, Here I am. Send someone else. No, really, he didn't say that. In Isaiah 6.8, when he hears God ask,

who shall I send? Who will go for us? He says, here am I. Send me. But I'm tempted to say, send someone else. I'm tempted to say, God, whatever you do, when you've got a project, when you've got a big thing you're doing in the world, when you've got something you're doing in my community, when you've got something you want to do in my family, could you please send someone else? Because I'm not smart enough. I'm not holy enough. I'm still struggling with sins that I feel like I should be passed by now. I don't know as much as others. I'm a nobody, God.

Would you please send someone else? See, this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because I want to be a part of something big, something God is doing, something important, something of eternal significance, but I'm never quite sure that I'm up for the task. I'm always wondering if I am really up to what God is calling me to do. I have this thought that God uses smart people, holy people, eloquent people, but not people like me. But when you look at the Bible of who God uses, what you find is that God uses broken people, God uses sinful people, God uses people who honestly are mixed bags, who in one sense

are growing in their faith, but in another sense have a long, long way to go. In one sense, they're really pursuing Jesus, but in another sense, they are still denying him in part of their lives. just looked at a passage like Hebrews chapter 11 and ask what kind of people does God really use? Like there's Noah. Noah has never seen an ocean or a boat. And yet for a hundred years, he builds this massive arc. And God uses it to save his family.

But then right afterwards, Noah gets drunk, embarrasses this family that leads to a serious division among the nations. So in some sense, Noah is full of faith. In another sense, he's still struggling with basic sins. Or there's Abraham. Abraham leaves his country. He leaves his family and he heads out to this place he's never been. And that's because he trusts God. He trusts God to leave his family. He trusts God when he's going to offer his son Isaac to him. And yet this same Abraham, the same man who is full of faith, repeatedly lied. about his wife Sarah, compromising her safety, all for the sake of his own personal well-being. There's Jacob. Jacob is the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. He's a man who pursues God and wrestles with God and won't let go of God, and yet he's also a deceiver and a liar. He lies to his brother. He

lies to Laban, his father-in-law? There's Moses. Moses is the guy who meets God and the burning bush. He leads Israel out of Egypt, crosses the Red Sea. And yet, he's also the same person who is prideful and impatient and because of his sins doesn't get to go into the promised land. There's Gideon, who is the ultimate mixed bag. He's so afraid of doing God's will that he keeps asking for more and more evidence that it's really God who is speaking to him. But he's also the guy who leads 300 men into this victorious battle against 135,000 Midianite soldiers. So in one sense, he trusts God.

In another sense, he's scared to death to trust God. Hebrews 11.32 to 34. Listen to this. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barack, San, Jephthah about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith, conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength, and

he became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Did you catch that, whose weakness was turned to strength? Remember that. Now think for a second about the disciples who later became the apostles. They were just regular people with regular jobs. One had been a tax collector. Several of them had been fishermen. They weren't wealthy. They weren't well respected.

They weren't educated. They weren't powerful. As a matter of fact, it turned out to be their weaknesses that was so painfully obvious during Jesus' ministry. It was those weaknesses that made their testimony so powerful. Because after Jesus ascended, Peter and John spoke to some religious leaders. Acts 413, when they, this is the religious leaders, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Notice that it's their weaknesses.

They were just unschooled, ordinary men that God used. And it was the reason that the religious leaders, the opponents of Jesus, were so astonished. And they saw that these men had been with Jesus. So God had been glorified, not despite their lack of education and talent, but because of it. These were ordinary, unimportant men when they did spectacular things. When they showed great courage, people saw that it wasn't because of who they were. It was because of who God was. In 2 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul writes this,

But God said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Paul doesn't say I used to be weak, but now I'm strong. Or if I could ever stop being weak, then finally I'd be strong. It isn't about being strong despite weakness. It isn't about being strong after weaknesses are gone. on. It's about being strong in and through and because of weakness. It's about letting God's strengths show

through your weaknesses. We see our weaknesses as disqualifying, but God doesn't. You might say it's a requirement for God to use you. Hudson Taylor was a great missionary in China, and when he was asked why he was used of the Lord, like, why did God use you so much in China? Here's what Hudson Taylor said. God looked for a man weak enough and he found me. Here's the truth. You can never be too small or too weak for God to use. You can only be too big, too strong. There's a test out there called strength finders and it helps you identify what your strengths are and it's a really great test.

But what if we had something called weakness finders? No one enjoys sharing their weaknesses, do they? and yet it's weak people that God uses. So how do we apply this to our life? Well, one thing we know is that God uses sinful people, flawed people, imperfect people. Now, that's not an excuse to stop fighting sin in our life, but it is an acknowledgement that we are never going to be sinless. We are never going to get past sin.

And so God can use this in the middle of our sin. I guess another way to apply it is to say never put spiritual leaders on a pedestal. Just because God's using someone doesn't mean that they don't have their own struggle with sin. We know this, that our competency to be in ministry, our competency to be used by God to lead a small group or to teach a class or to talk to a friend about Jesus or to mentor someone in the community, maybe through a big brothers or big sisters club, or to serve at the food bank, or to be chairperson. of a nonprofit doing good work in your community, to do your work with excellence, to be an influence or a leader in your Christian community, that that competency to do that doesn't come from ourselves, but as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, it comes from God. So why does God use broken, flawed, sinful people? Well, first of all, that's the only kind of

people there are, but also because it shows that God gets the glory. Second Corinthians 4-7, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. When God uses us, we don't get the glory. At least we shouldn't. It should all go to God because it's obvious that we are just jars of clay. All the power, all the wisdom, all the might, that came from God. It's not our looks or our leadership or our power, or our fame, or our smarts. It's what God can do. But I guess then that means that we can't use these things as excuses to not be used by God. It means that we sinners, broken and weak and flawed and full of struggles, need to be open and to say, God, how do you want to use me? Where do you want to use me? Because you use people like me, so I am available to you.

And then finally, I guess one application should be that our limitations and our failures and our sin and our struggles and our weaknesses keep us closely connected to God. It reminds us that apart from him, we can do nothing. And so we need to be people who depend on him, who pray, who open our life to him, who say, God, if anything good is going to come here, it's going to have to be because you do it, because you show up. But that's exactly what God wants to do. God wants to show up to people who will say, here am I Lord send me are you willing to be used by God are you waiting until you reach some spiritual status are you waiting until you stop struggling with sin stop waiting open your heart open your life here am I Lord send me thanks for listening if you've enjoyed this content please subscribe and give us a

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