Pastor Braden Pedersen:
Hey guys I am so excited to be back here on Faith4All we’re ready for a great year this year so excited to see God move.
We’re beginning a brand-new series called ‘I am UNQUALIFIED X2’ this is going to be a short 2-week series and I urge you to share it on social media, twitter, Instagram, facebook under the hashtag #f4aqualified.
So I want to begin by sharing a thought. Just one thought that’s gonna be the main idea of today, okay? Just this thought: God doesn’t call the qualified, He calls the committed.
When I was working on this message this week I hunted around online and found that in order to be the pastor of most churches in America, there are three kind of basic qualifications that are required if you want to be considered. They are:
1. You must have some sort of seminary degree
2. You must have been in the ministry for at least 5 years
3. You must have been married for at least two years
So seminary, 5 years experience, 2 years married. When I noticed this common trend among churches I wondered, isn’t funny that Jesus Christ the son of God wouldn’t qualify to be the lead pastor of most churches in America. Jesus Christ the son of God wouldn’t qualify to be the lead pastor of most churches in America. I mean he didn’t have a seminary degree, he only did public ministry for 3 years, and he wasn’t married. He fell short of every single worldly qualification. And this is something that hit very close to home, because just this week someone said that I was unfit to do what I was doing with Faith4All. He said I needed more experience before I could lead an organization like Faith4All ministering to and impacting so many people. He told me that I was not qualified. And guess what, I’m not qualified. I am unqualified. I am unqualified to serve the kingdom of God in the way that I do but God doesn’t call the qualified He calls the committed. We are ALL unqualified to serve God but Jesus didn’t come for the people who had it all together, he came for the people who need a savior. He didn’t call the religious leaders and the Pharisees who followed the law of religion perfectly as his disciples, he called the tax collectors, he called the tent makers, the fishermen. I’m going to abridge my statement from earlier a little bit to this: Jesus didn’t call the qualified he called the committed.
He called the all-in, no going back, love-filled, ludicrously generous, irrationally faithful people who wanted nothing but to serve him. He didn’t call the rich man who had lots and gave little, he called the poor woman who had little and gave all she had. He didn’t call the one who prays so everyone can see how spiritual he/she is, he called the one who prays with meekness and fear of the Lord. He called the unqualified, so if you feel unqualified to serve God then you are 100% correct. I Am Unqualified. But if I recognize that I am unqualified, and I humble yourself under the mighty hand of God then I begin to see Him become my qualification. His Holy Spirit within me is my qualification to share the gospel to anyone who will listen.
See sometimes we get so caught up in our own worldly qualifications that we start to become like the Pharisees. We begin to believe that we are better suited as servants of God than others, and that is dangerously arrogant.
I saw this firsthand a while ago. I had just turned 17 years old and it was my second time ever I had gotten an opportunity to preach in church, I got to preach in the kid’s ministry and I had to preach five times that weekend. I was so excited because I love teaching and I loved whenever I’d get an opportunity. And because I was still pretty new they assigned me an older guy, we’ll call him John, who was really experienced teaching kids and he was gonna kind of be my mentor for the whole process, help me write my lesson, review it, practice it, critique it and so on and so forth. So I was cool with it all and still really excited but from the get-go, this guy kind of had an air about him that told me he didn’t think I deserved to be there. It was obvious to anybody that was watching that he didn’t like the fact I was being allowed this opportunity. So right from the get-go he just started going off on me. Chewing me out, tearing my ideas down, making me feel small. It was beyond the point of constructive criticism or anything like that it was just absolutely everything I did he threatened to pull me off the stage. And I was so confused because the kids were loving it, other adults who were there looking on were fine, but this guy just had such a big chip on his shoulder that he’d tear me to shreds every time I finished preaching. Now I went home that weekend after I finished the fifth time and I was just dejected. I was like ‘is God really calling me to ministry’ and I was beating myself up saying I’m not good enough to do this, I was angry, confused, sad, and on top of that I had just preached five times so I was exhausted but I remember I went home to take a nap and I couldn’t sleep. I was just praying to God like “God am I this unqualified?” and I remember exactly the words that came into my mind and I sensed the Holy Spirit say: “I am your qualification. I have called you to a higher purpose.”
See through a man’s eyes I was an unqualified kid. But through God’s eyes, I was a committed servant. God doesn’t call the qualified, he calls the committed. And if you think at all, that you are too broken, too far gone, too sinful, too unqualified to be used by God, I have news for you: we are Unqualified.
If you’re familiar with the Bible, you’ll recognize these names: King David, Jonah, Peter, Paul, Noah, Moses, Samson, and Rahab. Kind David was an adulterer and murderer. Jonah ran away because he was scared. Peter denied Jesus three times. Paul killed thousands of Christians, Noah was an alcoholic, Moses was a murderer, Samson was arrogant, and Rahab was a prostitute. All these people were used by God in a miraculous way. If God can use them according to His purposes, He can definitely use you, Why? Because God doesn’t call the qualified, He calls the committed. And maybe you might be listening right now and you aren’t committed to following Christ. You might have done some things in your past that you are so ashamed of that you think there’s no way God could love me. I’m not good enough. Well I’m here to tell you that God doesn’t care if you’re good enough, and all you have to do to have a relationship with Him is confess that you are a sinner, and that Jesus who is the Son of God, died on a cross 2,000 years ago for your all your sins, and rose again 3 days later and defeated death. And if you believe that, and make Jesus Lord of your life, then by grace and through faith you will be saved and have a relationship with Him forever. If there are those of you out there listening right now that say “Yes I want to commit my life to Christ” then pray with me right now and believe this with all your heart.
Pray with me now
“Father, I confess that I am a sinner. I believe that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins as a perfect sacrifice and that he rose again three days later. Jesus, thank you for giving me new life. Now you have mine. In Your name I pray, Amen.”
Well if you just prayed that prayer with me what I want you to do next is just text the word SAVED to the number on your screen. We’ll get in touch with you and we have a gift we’d like to share with you to help get you started on your journey with Christ. Just text SAVED to the number on your screen.
Father I thank you that you are a good God who doesn’t care if we’re qualified. You only care if we’re committed. God I pray for everyone here now God I pray that you would guide us in our coming weeks and that you would allow us to serve you. Thank you for everything you’re doing and continue to do, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
As you go through the next few days, no matter what trials your facing at work or home or school, remember that you are a child of God, and be proud to be Unqualified.
