God Wants To Use You To Make a Difference
I want you to turn to your neighbor this morning and say:
1. Howdy Hoe good neighbor
2. God wants to use you to make a difference in 2001
3. God wants to use me to make a difference in 2001
With a new year upon us the Father is on a search. This search is to and fro on the earth. This search is not necessarily for those who are lost, but a search for those who will bring in the lost.
God is looking for men and women, boy and girl who will make a difference in His kingdom. He is not looking for those who have wealth, He is not looking for those who have dynamic personalities, He is not looking for people with great social backgrounds. God is looking for those people who will let Him use them to fulfill what Jesus came and died for over 2000 years ago.
I want to take a look at some of these people this morning so we can understand what God is looking for and who is eligible for this life changing opportunity.
RAHAB – A prostitute in Jericho
Josh 2:1-14 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. 2The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." 3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land." 4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." 6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) 7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. 8Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof 9and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. 11 When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign 13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."
14 "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."
The Mighty Men of David
11 Here is the record of David's mightiest men:
1. The first was Jashobeam the Hacmonite, who was commander of the Three – the three greatest warriors among David's men. F87 He once used his spear to kill three hundred enemy warriors in a single battle.
2. Eleazar son of Dodai, (DoDo) a descendant of Ahoah.
He was with David in the battle against the Philistines at Pas-dammim. The battle took place in a field full of barley, and the Israelite army fled. 14 But Eleazar and David held their ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines. So the LORD saved them by giving them a great victory.
20 Abishai, the brother of Joab, was the leader of the Thirty. He once used his spear to kill three hundred enemy warriors in a single battle.
22 There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. 23 Another time, armed with only a club, he killed an Egyptian warrior who was seven and a half feet F90 tall and whose spear was as thick as a weaver's beam. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it.
15 Once when David was at the rock near the cave of Adullam, the Philistine army was camped in the valley of Rephaim. The Three (who were among the Thirty – an elite group among David's fighting men) went down to meet him there. 16 David was staying in the stronghold at the time, and a Philistine detachment had occupied the town of Bethlehem. 17 David remarked longingly to his men, "Oh, how I would love some of that good water from the well in Bethlehem, the one by the gate." 18 So the Three broke through the Philistine lines, drew some water from the well, and brought it back to David. But David refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out before the LORD. 19 "God forbid that I should drink this!" he exclaimed. "This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me." So David did not drink it. This is an example of the exploits of the Three. It was by such feats that he became as famous as the Three. 21 Abishai was the most famous of the Thirty and was their commander, though he was not one of the Three.
Who were these valiant men who helped shape a nation. Men of such honor who refused to die or bend their knee to any one but David.
1 Samuel 22:1-5 So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and other relatives joined him there. 2 Then others began coming – men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented – until David was the leader of about four hundred men.
If God can use Tax dodgers, and Prositutes certainly he wouldn’t use a Tax collector to change the world. I’m here to tell you if he would use a tax collector He’ll use anybody.
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me." So he arose and followed Him.
• Matthew was a tax collector
• Matthew was a member of a group that other Jews detested.
• Tax collectors were perceived not only as cheats, but mercenaries working for the Romans.
• Condemned by the religious leaders as unrighteous and ostracized by the general public as frauds and traitors, they found friends only among prostitutes, criminals, and other outcasts.
Yet Jesus selected Matthew to follow Him (Matt. 9:9). Scripture gives no indication why, but it does record the Lord’s comment, "Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’ [Hos. 6:6]. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance" (Matt. 9:13). Apparently the call of Matthew was an act of pure mercy on the Lord’s part—a choice that outraged self-satisfied religionists like the Pharisees.
You have to be diligent when making a difference for God!
God used an English man to bring revival to the United states. John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church Lived most of the 1700’s
He came up with a radical idea: to be devoted to and reverence to God. To walk a holy life before God
John Wesley was a man mighty in faith and prayer. Time and again people possessed with devils were brought to him and in answer to prayer the demons were cast out. Not only were evil spirits cast out, but the sick were healed as well. As Wesley preached, the power of God often came upon his listeners, and hundreds would fall under the power of the Spirit. Then, in
answer, to prayer their souls and bodies were healed. A physician became offended at the cries of many who fell under the power of God. He attended Wesley's meeting and a lady he knew fell under the power. "Great drops of sweat ran down her face, and all her bones shook. But when both her soul and body were healed in a moment he acknowledged the finger of God."
On another occasion when Wesley was traveling the preaching circuit, his horse suddenly became lame. With no one near to offer help, he stopped and prayed. "Immediately the horse's lameness was gone."
John Wesley wrote in his diary:
Sunday morning May 5, preached in St. Ann’s, was asked not to come back anymore
Sunday pm May 5, Preached at St. John’s, deacons said, “Get out and stay out.”
Sunday am, May 12, preached at St Judes, can’t go back there either
Sunday pm May 12 Preached at St Georges, Kicked out again
Sunday am May 19, Preached at St. Somebody elses, deacons called a special meeting and said don’t return
Sunday pm May 19, Preached on the streets, kicked off the streets.
Sunday am May 26, preached in a meadow, chased out of meadow as a bull was turned loose during the services.
Sunday am, June 2, preached out at the edge of town, kicked off the highway
Sunday pm, June 2, afternoon service, preached in a pasture, ten thousand people came to hear me.
In Order to make a difference we need to seek after God with every thing within us.
God is looking for someone who is willing to tie a rope around and ankle and say, “If I perish, I perish; but I am going to go behind the veil. I’m going to put on the blood, I’m going to repent, I’m going to do everything I can because I’m tired of knowing about Him. I want to know Him. I’ve got to see His face.
